Parliamentary activity

Answering body: Home Office

30 out of the 33 recommendations made by the Brook House Inquiry have been accepted or partially accepted. Following full consideration three recommendations (recommendations 7, 19 and 30) have been rejected.

Positive progress continues to be made against the accepted recommendations, with 12 recommendations (recommendations 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 14, 18, 22, 23, 24, 25 and 26) met and closed as of October 2024, 5 (recommendations 5, 11, 27, 28 and 29) due for closure by the end of January 2025, and the remaining 13 (recommendations 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, 31, 32 and 33) on track for closure by summer 2025.

Answering body: Home Office

30 out of the 33 recommendations made in the Brook House Inquiry report have been accepted or partially accepted, with 12 recommendations met and closed as of October 2024. The remaining recommendations remain on track for closure by summer 2025.

Answering body: Home Office

The abuse that took place at Brook House Immigration Removal Centre (IRC) in 2017 was unacceptable.

Whilst there are no plans to publish a response to each recommendation raised by the inquiry, positive progress continues to be made against the 30 accepted recommendations. The Government will continue to reflect and act on Inquiry recommendations.

Specifically on recommendations 14-17, on the use of force in IRCs, the Home Office communicated to all IRC and contracted service provider staff in December 2023 and May 2024, that techniques involving handcuffing behind backs whilst seated is not permitted. A new Detention Services Order in relation to use of force is being developed specifically for the immigration detention estate and will be published in Spring 2025.

Answering body: Home Office

The scope of the Adults at Risk review includes the Immigration (Guidance on Detention of Vulnerable Persons) Regulations 2024.

The review forms part of the response to one of the recommendations of the Brook House Inquiry (Recommendation 9: Review of the operation of Rule 35 of the Detention Centre Rules 2001). The review will not cover all areas of the Brook House Inquiry and will not reassess the findings and recommendations made.

Answering body: Home Office

The abuse that took place at Brook House Immigration Removal Centre (IRC) in 2017 was unacceptable.

The previous government published its response to the public inquiry into Brook House IRC on 19 March 2024, summarising the progress made since 2017 and addressing each of the ten key areas of concern raised in the report.

The new government is carefully considering the Inquiry’s recommendations and will set out its approach in due course.

Answering body: Home Office

The Government is today publishing its response to the Brook House Inquiry. The Government is grateful to the Chair of the Brook House Inquiry (BHI), Kate Eves, for her review and welcomes this important contribution to ensuring the safety and welfare of those in detention. The response has been laid before Parliament as a Command Paper (CP 1041) and copies are available in the Vote Office and on gov.uk.

This inquiry, in which the Home Office was a core participant, was in response to an investigative current affairs documentary broadcast in September 2017, which included covert footage of abuse of detained people at Brook House immigration removal centre (IRC) by a small number of contracted service provider staff. The inquiry was established on 5 November 2019 and published its report on 19 September 2023. The inquiry formally closed on 31 January 2024.

The aim of the inquiry was to establish the facts of what took place and ensure that lessons were learnt to prevent those shocking events happening again. The Government expects the highest standards from contracted service providers.

The Government wishes to highlight the significant improvements that have been made since 2017 to uphold the welfare and dignity of those detained across the estate including strengthening safeguards, promoting a culture of transparency and improving the oversight of contractors’ performance. The Government is confident the measures taken so far in responding to the BHI have gone a long way to addressing many of the key concerns raised, and will continue to reflect on the findings from the Inquiry ensuring that they are fully embedded into the development and implementation of new and emerging policy initiatives.

Answering body: Home Office

The Government will carefully consider the findings of the Brook House Inquiry in its detailed report, including the recommendations in relation to the management of the immigration detention estate and the welfare of detained individuals.

Answering body: Home Office

Today the independent Inquiry into the mistreatment of individuals who were detained at Brook House Immigration Removal Centre (IRC) between 1 April 2017 and 31 August 2017, as shown in the BBC Panorama programme “Under-Cover: Britain’s Immigration Secrets” has published its report.

The report can be found on the Brook House Inquiry website from noon today.

The Report sets out failings in both oversight and governance to protect the welfare of detained individuals within Brook House IRC during this period.

The Government takes the welfare and safety of those we detain very seriously and has made significant improvements to immigration detention since the dates covered by the Inquiry.

I would like to thank Kate Eves and the Inquiry Team for their work to establish the facts of what happened at Brook House IRC, to identify learning and to make recommendations that will help to prevent a recurrence of such events.

We will carefully consider the findings of this Inquiry in its detailed report, including the recommendations in relation to the management of the immigration detention estate and the welfare of detained individuals.

I have today laid the Inquiry’s report before the House, and it will also be published on www.gov.uk.