The UK should introduce automatic judicial oversight of all decisions to detain, rather than detaining people solely on the basis of an administrative decision.

A person detained under immigration law should be brought within 72 hours before a judicial authority so that the decision can be examined and confirmed or overturned.

The 2016 Immigration Bill introduced an ‘automatic bail referral’ process for people in detention who had not applied for bail in the past 4 months. In July 2018, alongside other measures taken in response to Stephen Shaw’s second review of immigration detention, the Home Secretary announced a new pilot for referrals after 2 months.

However, these referrals are restricted to those who do not have any previous criminal convictions, and often do not allow time for people to secure legal representation or appropriate accommodation to be released to.