Healthcare staff guidance and training on use of force incidents
Brook House Inquiry · The Brook House Inquiry Report · Issued 19 September 2023 · Addressed to: Home Office
Source — verbatim from the inquiry
●Inquiry recommendation
The Home Office must ensure that guidance is issued to healthcare staff in immigration removal centres clarifying their role in use of force incidents. It must liaise as necessary with NHS England and any relevant medical regulators. The Home Office must ensure that mandatory training is introduced for healthcare staff, and those responsible for managing them, on their roles and responsibilities in relation to planned and unplanned use of force (liaising with NHS England and any other relevant parties). The training must be subject to an assessment.
Brook House Inquiry, The Brook House Inquiry Report · 19 Sep 2023 Source PDF →
Published evidence summary
Publicly available evidence relating to this recommendation:
- Notwithstanding the March 2024 rejection, DSO 11/2025 (Use of Force for Adults in Detention), published in December 2025, requires a healthcare professional to be in attendance at all use of force incidents in immigration removal centres (Detention Services Order 11/2025, Home Office, December 2025).
- No published guidance from NHS England or the CQC specifically addressed to healthcare staff roles in IRC use of force incidents has been identified to March 2026.
Response — verbatim from government
●Home Office
The government does not accept this recommendation. The government stated that NHS England commissions healthcare services and it is their responsibility, alongside the Care Quality Commission, to assure the quality of health service provision within the detention estate.
Home Office · 19 Mar 2024 Written response →
Evidence trail — what's actually happened since
- 14 Jan 2025 Angela Eagle, Written PQ 23170 (15 January 2025): '30 out of the 33 recommendations have been accepted or partially accepted. Following full consideration three recommendations (recommendations 7, 19 and 30) have been rejected.' Source →
- 3 Sep 2025 · HM Inspectorate of Prisons Engagement with charities described as "very limited". 10 people released homeless in past year including 3 assessed as adults at risk. View source → Insufficient Progress
- 19 Sep 2024 · Brook House Inquiry Chair Inquiry Chair Kate Eves described government response as "inadequate" and called for a "reset" with the new government. Warned abuse "becomes a question of when, not if" it happens again. Insufficient Progress
Each entry above links to a primary source — gov.uk written statement, consultation response document, or inspection report. The Index does not characterise government intent; it tracks what has been published.
How this page is built
Source and Response are verbatim from primary documents. The Evidence trail records published activity since — written statements, consultation outcomes, inspection findings, parliamentary references. The Index does not paraphrase or characterise intent; it tracks what has been published. Where the evidence is the absence of action (a missed deadline, a slipped timetable), that absence is documented from primary sources rather than inferred.
This recommendation's data is verified periodically against primary sources. The Index is monitored for staleness weekly.