25 Accepted in Part

Ensure senior manager presence and accessibility to staff

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

Source — verbatim from the inquiry

Inquiry recommendation

Contractors operating immigration removal centres must ensure that senior managers are regularly present and visible within the immigration removal centre and are accessible to more junior detention staff.

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

Published evidence summary

Publicly available evidence relating to this recommendation:

- In March 2024, the Home Office stated that contractors are required to ensure senior managers are regularly present and visible within IRCs, addressing desensitisation and staff culture concerns (Government Response to the Brook House Inquiry, Home Office, March 2024).
- No independently published assessment of senior manager visibility in practice across the detention estate has been identified to March 2026.

Response — verbatim from government

Home Office

The government response addressed this under staffing and culture, with contractors required to ensure senior managers are regularly present and visible.

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): 'Completed and closed as of October 2024.' Source →
  • 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.