Immigration Detention in the UK: the legality and effectiveness of regulation of safeguarding
This study seeks to explore the UK's approach to safeguarding within immigration detention and the collation of data by emanations of the state, from the Home Office to regulatory bodies, addressing the operation of policies designed to protect people from harm.
The project is particularly timely given the government's commitment to increasing the use of immigration enforcement powers and expanding the capacity of the detention estate (Home Office, 2024). It plans to analyse systems of safeguarding by reviewing data collected by the state to be obtained under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. The analysis is to be further developed by detailed individual case studies combining independent medico-legal assessment of aspects of an individual's clinical situation or psychological response to detention set against contemporaneous NHS and Home Office records, together with analysis of the wider role of regulatory authorities.
The approach to this research is to assess aspects of control and regulation of state action at an institutional level, and the data collected for these ends. This comprises exploration of safeguarding policy and the compliance of processes with the principles of administrative law and the requirements of the European Convention on Human Rights, and the Home Office's susceptibility to control by the courts.
A secondary aspect of this element of the study reviews other mechanisms of institutional curbs on immigration detention at an organisational level. This considers the role of healthcare and custodial monitoring authorities as well as the regulation of the conduct of individuals in positions of authority with safeguarding responsibilities.