Following a long campaign to provide support to detained asylum seekers, the charity Medical Justice has amassed a large amount of detailed information on the harm caused to children when they are detained by the UK Borders Authority (UKBA) in Immigration Removal Centres (IRCs).

Despite the Deputy Prime Minister having stated on 21st July 2010  that the detention of children would cease, it is continuing. This raises doubts as to whether Nick Clegg's utterances are taken seriously within government. Was he lying when he said that this practice, which he called 'state sponsored cruelty' would end? Or is he just a liberal fig-leaf in a coalition government that does not act on his word?