Detention Centres in UK Law

I agree with these observations, but I would prefer to apply them to the system of review that is set out in the policy rather than to the system required by rule 9(1). This is because it seems to me that the 2001 Rules are concerned with the regulation and management of detention centres, not with the way the discretion to detain is exercised.

On arrival at each of these three detention centres the Claimant was seen by a staff nurse but not by a doctor though he did later see a doctor at his own request on 11 February at Harmondsworth. His full asylum interview had been initially fixed for 16 February but it was deferred at his own request to 24 February. On 22 February the Claimant's current solicitors Duncan Lewis wrote to the Defendant and, among other things, requested a further postponement of the full asylum interview.

It is desirable that those conducting medical examinations have wide experience as general practitioners including experience of mental health. There is no doubt about the underlying rationale of the policy. Those who have suffered torture in the past are disproportionately adversely affected by detention. That is why the Secretary of State will normally detain those in respect of whom there is independent evidence of torture only in very exceptional circumstances.

A very high, rather than routine, risk that the detainee will abscond might well also provide a proper basis for maintaining detention. However, there may be cases in which information available to the decision maker leads him to the firm conclusion that the torture claim is untrue, that is to say incredible or very unlikely to be true.

Section 47 of the Prison Act, 1952 , deals with what the rubric describes as "rules for the management of prisons and other institutions". Sub-section (l) reads: "The Secretary of State may make rules for the regulation and management of prisons, remand centres, detention centres and Borstal institutions respectively, and for the classification, treatment, employment, discipline and control of persons required to be detained therein".

In my opinion, there is nothing in the Prison Act 1952 that confers power to make regulations which would deny, or interfere with, the right of the respondent, as a prisoner, to have unimpeded access to a court. Section 47, which has already been quoted, is a section concerned with the regulation and management of prisons and, in my opinion, is quite insufficient to authorise hindrance or interference with so basic a right.

The effect of mental illness on an individual does not follow as a necessary consequence of a particular diagnosis. It can vary according to its particular features, the particular characteristics and circumstances of the individual, and the treatment provided. The Royal College of Psychiatrists' position statement states (p 6) that whether mental illness is serious is a fact-sensitive question. For example, the court was informed that some detention centres do not have counselling services.