Home / Inquiries / Al-Sweady Inquiry / AS-7
← AS-6 AS-8 →
AS-7

Strip-Search Safeguards

Al-Sweady Inquiry · The Report of the Al-Sweady Inquiry · Issued 17 December 2014 · Addressed to: Ministry of Defence

Government responseMinistry of Defence: Accepted in part (Dec 2014)

DeliveryMinistry of Defence says completed (Mar 2015)

Recommendation, verbatim from the inquiry

●Inquiry recommendation

Appropriate measures should be taken to ensure that minimum safeguards are in place where a detainee is to be strip-searched. These include informing a detainee as to the necessity for the strip-search and requesting his/her co-operation. Those conducting a strip-search should always bear in mind the need to respect the detainee's dignity, particularly having regard to any cultural sensitivities. Searches should be conducted by, and in front of the minimum number of persons necessary and screens or other measures should be taken to shield a detainee from as many of those attending as possible. Those persons should be of the same gender as the detainee unless none are available.

Al-Sweady Inquiry, The Report of the Al-Sweady Inquiry · 17 Dec 2014 Source PDF →

Published evidence summary

AI-generated evidence summary

The Ministry of Defence reported in March 2015 that it had implemented the recommendation in full by introducing safeguards during the strip-searching of detainees (Ministry of Defence, Mar 2015). That update followed a statement to the House of Commons in December 2014 by Michael Fallon, the Secretary of State for Defence, who said the recommendation was accepted in principle subject to urgent work on practical implications (Michael Fallon response, Dec 2014).

Sources

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

Report-level response context

The Secretary of State for Defence accepted all nine recommendations in principle together, in one passage of his statement to the House of Commons on 17 December 2014. That passage is shown on each recommendation and is not a response to any one of them alone. He said he would announce his detailed conclusions later. His written statement of 12 March 2015 (HCWS383) and the report on implementation he placed in the Library of the House that day (deposited paper DEP2015-0312) give the Ministry of Defence's account of each recommendation; they are shown as status updates.

Government response

●Ministry of Defence · Accepted in part · 17 Dec 2014

Words of: Michael Fallon, Secretary of State for Defence, statement to the House of Commons, 17 December 2014 (HC Deb vol 589, col 1408)

Sir Thayne Forbes has made just nine recommendations, and he acknowledges the progress that the Ministry has made since 2004 to improve all aspects of the prisoner-handling system—from policy and doctrine to unit-level instructions and procedures as well as training and oversight—and to ensure it complies with domestic and international law. I accept all nine recommendations in principle. I have commissioned urgent work on their practical implications—in particular, we will need to ensure that they will not prevent the armed forces from carrying out vital tasks—and I will announce to the House my detailed conclusions as soon as I can.

Extract from: Al-Sweady Inquiry Report (oral statement)

Delivery

●Ministry of Defence says completed · 12 Mar 2015

The Ministry of Defence has implemented in full four recommendations (Recommendations 3, 5, 7, and 9). These call for, respectively, the dating and retention of training material; the introduction of procedures to ensure the adequate recording of the capture of individuals and their physical condition on capture; the introduction of safeguards during the strip-searching of detainees; and provision for the recording of medical decisions on the suitability of detainees for detention and questioning.

From: Report on implementation of Al-Sweady Inquiry recommendations

Site note: The source gives this passage once, for recommendations 3, 5, 7 and 9 together. The same words are recorded on AS-3, AS-5, AS-7 and AS-9.

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.