Caroline Flint: On site services at immigration removal centres are subject to monitoring by Home Office contract monitors and are included in Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prison's inspections of individual centres. Operating standards for the centres also exist, including for healthcare, and the centres are required to audit compliance with them and submit their findings to the Director of Detention Services. In addition, initial discussions have taken place with the Healthcare Commission with a view to the possible registration of the private contractors who provide services at removal centres, which would bring them within the Healthcare Commission's oversight and inspection programme. While primary care trusts are not part of the formal monitoring process, they are being encouraged to work together with the removal centres to develop local protocols to improve the interface between healthcare services within the centres and the local national health service.

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