In The Press

Following the High Court ruling banning smoking inside immigration detention centres, as a direct result of litigation Duncan Lewis brought, the Guardian has reported on the G4S run detention centre, Brook House, which is still permitting the practice and has led to Crawley Council starting a criminal prosecution against the company. Whilst the detention centre no longer sells lighters or matches, detainees can still purchase cigarettes. The Guardian have reported that in order to light them they are going to dangerous extremes, including dismantling kitchen appliances or getting a spark from inserting shower gel covered hair pins into live plug sockets. A Senior Manager of the centre admitted in a recent G4S-commissioned report that nothing is being done to prevent the detainees smoking inside the centre, even making reference to their use of the illegal psychoactive drug, spice, without any staff intervention. Lewis Kett, a public law solicitor involved in the case that resulted in the smoking ban, commented: “It’s now been over a year since the high court ruled that the Home Office were knowingly evading the law by permitting smoking in detention centres. Despite this we have clients who have continued to complain that G4S has not cracked down on this. This is a serious public health issue and we welcome the news that this prosecution will proceed.”