Caroline Nokes tells joint committee on human rights she wants fair system that also acts as deterrent

The immigration minister, Caroline Nokes, has told MPs she is looking “very closely” at calls to end indefinite immigration detention.

The UK is an outlier in Europe with its policy of having no cap on immigration detention and there are numerous cases of detainees being held for months and sometimes years.

Appearing before the joint committee on human rights, Nokes said: “I’m looking very closely at the issue of time limits to understand how we can best have a detention system that is both fair to those being detained but also upholds our immigration policies and can act as a deterrent to those who seek to frustrate those policies.”

The government detains just over 25,000 people every year pending deportation, at an annual cost of £108m. The practice of indefinite incarceration has been criticised by high court judges, local authorities, parliamentary committees and the UN.

More than half of all detainees are ultimately released back into British society, not deported. Some have taken legal action over their imprisonment. The Home Office’s latest annual report acknowledges that the government has paid out £3m to 118 people unlawfully detained in the 2017-18 financial year.

A survey of almost 200 detainees held in seven deportation centres in England as of 31 August showed that almost 56% were defined as an “adult at risk”. Such individuals are only supposed to be detained in extreme cases, suggesting that Home Office guidelines on detention have been breached.

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The survey – conducted in association with 11 law firms and charities that work with people facing deportation – also found that a third had dependent children in the UK, and 84% had not been told when they would be deported, implying open-ended incarceration.

Almost half the detainees had not committed a crime, but the average detainee in the sample had been imprisoned for four months. The majority had lived in the UK for five years or more and some had been in the country for more than 20 years.

Nokes’s appearance comes after the Labour MP Tulip Siddiq tabled a 10-minute rule bill to impose a statutory time limit of 28 days on immigration detention. The bill received cross-party support.

The UK has one of the largest immigration detention systems in Europe. In the year ending in March, 26,541 individuals entered detention centres, down 8% from the previous year, and 27,429 left detention, down 5%.

At the end of March, 2,400 people were being held in detention centres, excluding prisons, a fall of 18% compared to 12 months earlier. Additionally, 358 individuals were held in immigration detention in prisons.

There is no statutory limit on immigration detention but the courts have held that detention with a view to removal is lawful only if there is a realistic prospect of this occurring within a reasonable period. Campaigners say this is not closely adhered to.