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Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill [HL]

My Lords, I appreciate the care with which the Minister responded to the questions that I asked. In particular, I am grateful for the Government’s assurance that people will not be held in short-term holding facilities for longer than six hours, except where the PACE codes permit. I am particularly concerned about the use of short-term holding facilities at Heathrow and Gatwick airports, about which very serious criticisms have been made by the independent monitoring boards—to which attention has been drawn repeatedly by the noble Baroness, Lady Hanham, in a series of Written Questions—about the adequacy of the facilities, even for detention for short periods of six hours, for which they are supposed to be used now. If they are now going to be used, under this definition, for detentions under PACE provisions that allow a 96-hour contingency, they are totally unsuitable for the purpose. The Minister in the Commons gave an assurance that there was an action plan to upgrade the facilities in accordance with the recommendations of the independent monitoring board. However, that will depend on the good will of the British Airports Authority and its ability to provide the capital and resources for the extension of the facilities. It would still be wrong to allow persons to be detained in facilities that are not suitable even for overnight accommodation, because they lack bedding, a toilet or adequate washing facilities. However, as we are not going to get the support of the Conservatives for the amendment, there is no point in pressing it to a Division. We will keep a close eye on how these facilities are used and we hope that the bodies that I mentioned, including the Children’s Commissioner, the Chief Inspector of Prisons and the independent monitoring boards, will also ensure that unsuitable places are not used for keeping people for as long as the PACE code allows until the upgrading promised in the action plan has been accomplished. In the mean time, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment withdrawn. Motion on Amendment 9 agreed.