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Clarify authorisation for Rule 40 and Rule 42 segregation

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 amend, as a matter of urgency, Detention Services Order 02/2017: Removal from Association (Detention Centre Rule 40) and Temporary Confinement (Detention Centre Rule 42) and, if necessary, the Detention Services Operating Standards Manual for Immigration Service Removal Centres, to clarify who can authorise use of Rule 40 and Rule 42 of the Detention Centre Rules 2001, in both urgent and non-urgent circumstances, including providing a definition of the term 'manager' in Rule 40(2) and Rule 42(2). In anticipation of the update to Detention Services Order 02/2017, the Home Office must issue an immediate instruction to communicate this clarification to staff and contractors operating immigration detention centres.

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

Published evidence summary

AI-generated evidence summary

In a letter of May 2025, quoted in a court judgment of July 2025, Dame Angela Eagle, Minister for Border Security and Asylum, stated that the Home Office had published an interim instruction clarifying who can authorise removal from association and temporary confinement, with a fully updated order to be supplemented by staff awareness sessions (Dame Angela Eagle, May 2025). Earlier, in January 2025 written answers, the Minister reported that the recommendation was accepted or partially accepted and was "on track for closure by summer 2025" (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, 27 Sep 2026.

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

6.5.1. The Home Office has published an interim DSO to provide staff with further clarity on the use of Rule 40 (removal from association) and Rule 42 (temporary confinement) of the Detention Centre Rules 2001. This operational guidance establishes who can authorise use of Rule 40 and Rule 42 and the circumstances when this is appropriate. A substantive review of the DSO is being undertaken which will also consider assurance mechanisms and updated training for staff and, once in place, compliance with the DSO will be audited. Appropriate detail from the updated DSO will form part of ITCs.

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

On 18 March 2024, the Home Office published an interim DSO to provide staff with further clarity on the use of removal from association and temporary confinement in line with the DCR 2001 and Short-Term Holding Facility Rules 2018. This operational guidance details who can authorise use of removal from association and temporary confinement and the circumstances when this is appropriate. The introduction of a formal delegation process under DCR Rule 65 is not only intended to bring clarity but ensure the safety and security of the centre and crucially, enable authorisation of removal from association and temporary confinement without delay, by an appropriately trained and skilled manager. Once fully updated, the revised DSO will be supplemented by awareness sessions for IRC staff.

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 174.

Earlier statements on delivery (0)

●Home Office · 15 Jan 2025

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

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 13 remaining accepted recommendations. The same words are recorded on recommendations 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, 31, 32 and 33.

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