Private contractors that run one of the government's detention centres for asylum seekers have been sharply criticised by the country's top prisons' watchdog.

A report today on the treatment of detainees at Yarl's Wood, north Bedfordshire - a 400-bed immigration removal centre run by Global Solutions Limited under Home Office contract - finds healthcare was "inadequate . . . undermined by a lack of needs assessment, weak audit and clinical governance systems [and] in-adequate staff training".