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Require proper cell sharing risk assessments

Brook House Inquiry · The Brook House Inquiry Report · Issued 19 September 2023 · Addressed to: Home Office

Government responseHome Office: Accepted, fully or in part (not specified) (Jan 2025)

DeliveryHome Office says in progress (May 2025)

Recommendation, verbatim from the inquiry

●Inquiry recommendation

The Home Office must ensure that adequate risk assessment for cell sharing is carried out by contractors in relation to every detained person. This must be done at the outset of detention and then repeated at reasonable intervals (at least every 14 days) or following any relevant change in circumstances. In the event that an immigration removal centre is unable to detain someone in accordance with the outcome of a risk assessment (due to capacity or for other reasons), the Home Office must ensure that the individual does not remain at that centre.

Brook House Inquiry, The Brook House Inquiry Report · 19 Sep 2023 Source PDF →

Published evidence summary

AI-generated evidence summary

In a May 2025 letter quoted in a High Court judgment, Dame Angela Eagle, Minister for Border Security and Asylum, stated that room sharing risk assessments are reviewed immediately following behavioural changes, incidents, or new intelligence (Dame Angela Eagle, May 2025). The Minister added that revised guidance sets out systematic reviews for detained individuals rated as high risk, with delivery monitored monthly by Home Office compliance teams (Dame Angela Eagle, May 2025). Previously, in a January 2025 parliamentary written answer, the Minister reported that the recommendation had been accepted or partially accepted and was due for closure by the end of that month (Dame Angela Eagle response, Jan 2025; Dame Angela Eagle, Jan 2025).

Sources

AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 26 Sep 2026.

About this summary
This recommendation applies across many organisations. The record above reflects central policy activity; adoption in individual organisations may vary.

Government response

●Home Office · Accepted, fully or in part (not specified) · 15 Jan 2025

Words of: Dame Angela Eagle, Minister of State, Home Office, written answer to Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP, House of Commons, 15 January 2025 (UIN 23170)

30 out of the 33 recommendations made by the Brook House Inquiry have been accepted or partially accepted.

Response document: Mistreatment of Detainees at Brook House Immigration Removal Centre Inquiry (written question UIN 23170)

Site note: The written answer gives this sentence once, for 30 of the 33 recommendations together: every recommendation except 7, 19 and 30, which it says were rejected. It does not say which of the 30 were accepted in full and which in part, so the site records "Accepted, fully or in part (not specified)". The same words are recorded on recommendations 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32 and 33. Recommendations 1, 2 and 3 are among the 30 but are not given this row, because the Minister's letter of 22 May 2025 states a position on each of them.

Earlier statement from Home Office (1)

●Home Office · Under consideration · 19 Mar 2024

Words of: Home Office, Government response to the public inquiry into Brook House Immigration Removal Centre (CP 1041), March 2024

6.3.1. A new staffing model has been developed to deliver a considerably healthier ratio of custodial staff per detained individual to nearly double what it was in 2017. The new model represents an increase in staffing numbers taking account of each IRC’s requirements and layout, and incorporates the lessons learnt from external reports including the Shaw Review (into the welfare in detention of vulnerable persons), [footnote 1] His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) and Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) reports and the BHI report. It introduced changes to staffing patterns and requirements to deploy staff where they are most needed – supporting detained individuals in their journey through detention. One of the most significant changes affecting staffing levels is a shorter night state, when staffing requirements are reduced, limiting the amount of time a person can be locked in their room overnight to up to a maximum of 9 hours. This 9-hour maximum night state is now embedded.

Extract from: Government response to the public inquiry into Brook House Immigration Removal Centre

Site note: CP 1041 is organised by ten key issues, not by recommendation, and states no position on any individual recommendation. Its only general statement of acceptance is that "The government has carefully considered and accepts the broad thrust of the recommendations". The words "in principle" do not appear anywhere in the document.

Delivery

●Home Office says in progress · 22 May 2025

Careful consideration has been given to the frequency of room sharing risk assessments (RSRA). A dynamic approach is used whereby reviews are conducted immediately in specific circumstances, including in response to a change in a detained individual’s behaviour, following their involvement in an incident within the centre, or after new intelligence is received. This will strengthen the approach to assessing risk and further ensure staff and detained individuals’ safety. Our suppliers must also consider the review of the RSRA after other actions relating to a detained individual’s health and wellbeing have taken place, for example following the opening of a vulnerable adult care plan. In addition, a systematic and frequent review of all those rated as ‘high-risk’ will now take place, with revised guidance prepared to set out these changes. This new approach is routinely monitored each month by the Home Office onsite compliance teams to ensure it is being delivered as required.

From: R (D1914 and AAA) v Secretary of State for the Home Department; R (AVY) v Secretary of State for the Home Department, Dame Angela Eagle, Minister for Border Security and Asylum

Site note: These are the words of the letter of 22 May 2025 from the Minister for Border Security and Asylum to Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP, as reproduced in the judgment in R (D1914 and AVY) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2025] EWHC 1853 (Admin). The letter itself is not published: it is on GOV.UK nowhere, was not deposited in Parliament and is not annexed to the judgment, so the judgment is the record that carries it and is the source this row cites. The judgment quotes it on this recommendation at paragraph 150.

Earlier statements on delivery (0)

●Home Office · 15 Jan 2025

5 (recommendations 5, 11, 27, 28 and 29) due for closure by the end of January 2025

From: Mistreatment of Detainees at Brook House Immigration Removal Centre Inquiry (written question UIN 23170)

Site note: One written answer of 15 January 2025 addresses all 33 recommendations in groups: it names each recommendation in one of four groups and says nothing further about any of them individually. It does not say which of the 30 it describes as "accepted or partially accepted" were accepted in full and which in part.

Site note: The source gives this passage once, for the 5 recommendations it gives a closure date for. The same words are recorded on recommendations 5, 11, 27, 28 and 29.

How this page is built

The recommendation and the government responses are verbatim from primary documents. Delivery statements and other bodies' findings are shown in their own words, each with its source. The summary is written by this site and labelled as such. The Index does not paraphrase sources or characterise intent; it records what has been published.