Source · IMB Annual Report
Scotland and Northern Ireland short-term holding facilities (STHF)
Year: 2025
Published: 18 Dec 2025
Type: Prison · Cat Short-term Holding Facility
Population: 2,562
Recommendations: 11
Key concerns
Positive findings
This report monitors Short-term Holding Facilities (STHFs) in Scotland and Northern Ireland, highlighting significant variations in standards and persistent concerns despite positive staff interactions at times. Key issues include a lack of independent oversight for Controlled Waiting Areas, the continued mixed-sex detention at Larne House, and inconsistent, often inadequate, healthcare provisions, particularly the removal of prescription medication. The Board also raised concerns about substandard accommodation, excessively long detention periods in unsuitable conditions, and a strikingly low number of formal complaints, indicating systemic barriers to raising grievances.
Safety statistics
| Indicator | This year | Previous |
|---|---|---|
| Deaths in custody | 0 | — |
| Self-harm incidents | 0 | — |
| Prisoner assaults | 0 | — |
| Assaults on staff | 0 | — |
| Use of force | 0 | — |
Positive findings
The Board noted positive staff interactions at times, particularly at Larne House, where the atmosphere was calm and constructive and staff-detainee relations were good. Detainee property was handled sensitively and healthcare at Larne House received praise. Distraction interventions like TV, books, and toys are available across facilities to help manage stress.
Key concerns
Equality/Diversity
Repeated
Men and women were still detained together at Larne House, despite the Home Office's 2021 commitment to end this practice.
Safety
The use of force is supposed to take place only when necessary and lawful, yet a blanket handcuff policy was implemented by the Care and Custody provider and applied unnecessarily.
Safety
There are several areas where a strategic focus on continually improving safe delivery of detention is not evident, such as induction and provision for children and families.
Estate/Conditions
Repeated
Issues persist in accommodation standards, including cleanliness and fitness for purpose as the housekeeping standards can vary on a day to day basis.
Complaints/Property
In our view, several other aspects are concerning, such as the unusually low number of formal complaints, which contrasts with concerns raised in our visits.
Healthcare
At holding rooms, healthcare provision varies by location rather than clinical need for the individual.
Healthcare
Repeated
Prescription medications were still removed from persons detained at airport and reporting centre holding rooms. The IMB is of the opinion that this practice poses serious risks to people’s health – as mentioned in previous annual reports.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Repeated
People were detained for longer than necessary in unsuitable conditions. For example, some people have been held more than 26 hours with no access to natural light, fresh air or washing facilities.
Other
Transparency has been insufficient. Internal audits are shared only sporadically with us, marked as being protectively marked without clear reasoning, and lacking transparency in methodology.
Other
Defensiveness continues to be a concern, with responses to our enquiries focusing on defending past actions or citing policies, rather than recognising areas for improvement.
Other
The Home Office does not permit us to access CWAs, even if a holding room at the same port is monitored. As a result, people held solely in CWAs remain invisible to the IMB.
Other
Prestwick now joins other ports of entry in the UK as places where a person can be deprived of their liberty without any independent oversight from a UK NPM body. This is an intolerable position.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Inductions are conversations carried out upon arrival at a STHF to assess people’s needs and provide key information. Many people we spoke to at airport holding rooms lacked awareness of information that should have been covered in the induction.
Estate/Conditions
The physical reception environment is not always child-friendly to reduce distress for minors.
Safety
There continue to be concerning indicators of poor practice in suicide and self-harm prevention.
Safety
safety hazards that should never exist in a genuinely safe system – such as materials obstructing a potential evacuation route at Edinburgh.
Safety
For several reasons we cannot provide any assurances about care for vulnerable adults. First, we visited a small number of such people. Second, Care and Custody staff should complete a vulnerable adult warning form (VAWF) and follow the associated procedure to ensure vulnerable people in detention receive appropriate support. However, we cannot assess from our visits whether VAWFs were always opened when needed or whether follow-up action was appropriate.
Equality/Diversity
Modern slavery survivors are among the most vulnerable, requiring trauma-informed care including a calm, supportive environment. Yet, the holding rooms fall short.
Equality/Diversity
Children and families were not always given the privacy they deserve, as the area designated for them was not always separated from areas for other adults.
Estate/Conditions
Accommodation can fail to uphold basic dignity. At Drumkeen House, for example, a stall-type toilet cubicle is within the main holding room.
Estate/Conditions
Only two facilities, Larne House and Festival Court, have access to natural light and the open air. Airport and reporting centre holding rooms lack any natural light or ventilation.
Estate/Conditions
Showers are available at only one holding room, in Aberdeen. This is inadequate, for example for those detained overnight or after a long flight.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Privacy at an airport holding room or reporting centre holding room may be very limited, adding to stress. For example, only at Glasgow Airport can men and women be detained separately, if the family room was in use.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Light and noise can add to people’s stress. For example, at Edinburgh, people are held only in intensely bright light.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Arrangements in place at airport holding rooms and reporting centre holding rooms are unsatisfactory for sleeping.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Information about activities and rights in accommodation is often outdated, complex, and hard to access.
Estate/Conditions
Repeated
There are also frequent delays in repairs; effective leadership to ensure speedy and effective delivery of repairs has not been demonstrated.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
We have observed major shortcomings in access to clean linen for sleeping, with degrading impacts on people in detention.
Food/Catering
At Edinburgh in early 2024 the Board observed that people were not always given water, even when they asked. Snacks are available in all facilities, whereas hot meals were available only in some.
Staffing
The officer's abrupt and uncaring response was unacceptable. The conduct of Border Force staff reflects the standards and values the organisation and its leaders uphold.
Equality/Diversity
Repeated
Facilities are not physically accessible. For example, sleeping arrangements at airport and reporting centre holding rooms are inadequate for wheelchair users.
Equality/Diversity
Provision for people with sensory and non-visible impairments is poor. For example, materials such as leaflets are not always available in accessible formats.
Equality/Diversity
More generally, accommodation does not always support the best interests of children and families. For example, at Edinburgh the nappy changing bench is within a room with no natural ventilation and children in the family room have no visual privacy from unrelated adults.
Equality/Diversity
With the exception of Aberdeen airport, none of the airport or reporting centre holding rooms had dedicated prayer spaces. While religious artefacts and texts were available, they were not always stored respectfully.
Complaints/Property
Only one formal complaint was recorded (at Larne House) in this reporting period. This is a strikingly low figure when many issues are raised by people we speak to during our visits.
Complaints/Property
We observed several barriers to complaints, for example lack of writing instruments, outdated guidance, and complaint boxes placed in inaccessible location or in staff’s line of sight, discouraging use.
Healthcare
Healthcare is available at Larne House and people in detention we spoke to praised it. However, it is unclear if any external regulation is provided of the care.
Healthcare
In all the other facilities we monitor healthcare is limited to basic first aid. Any additional needs are addressed by calling an ambulance or NHS out of hours.
Mental Health
As far as we understand, there have been no links established with local mental health services. No listening service exists at any of the facilities.
Mental Health
At the reporting centre holding rooms, we observed that there is a lack of signposting to all available support services, such as Breathing Space in Scotland. Any existing signposting is provided in English only.
Mental Health
They do not include specific mental health resources to support people in managing anxiety and stress.
Other
Very serious failings in recordkeeping. For example, on a large number of occasions IS91 authority for detention forms were incorrectly completed. In some cases, safety-critical sections were left incomplete.
Other
Needlessly complicated written communications. For example, form IS91R, given to every person in detention, uses complex language and does not clearly explain the process.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Unacceptably long waits in controlled waiting areas at airports.
Other
A lack of curiosity about why there is an unusually low take-up of legal or consular advice.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
awareness of this entitlement [supervised phone calls] is far too variable. For example, we observed far too many instances where non-camera phones could have been provided but were not. This is a very serious breach of basic procedure.
Resettlement/Release
Removal processes are, in our opinion, often shockingly inefficient and time-consuming. For example, a person detained after travelling from the Republic of Ireland to Northern Ireland may be transferred to London before being sent back to Dublin.
Resettlement/Release
Delays in transfers from detention, whether to asylum accommodation or Immigration Removal Centres, often result in prolonged stays.
Recommendations
| # | Recommendation | Addressee | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Men and women are still detained together at the residential facility at Larne House. Particularly given that men convicted of sexual offences have been detained at Larne House, what will the Minister do to stop this? Repeated | Ministry of Justice | |
| 1 | There is an unwarranted variation in practice when Mitie Care and Custody staff use body-worn video but other staff do not. Similarly, interviews are not consistently audio-recorded, despite this having been standard practice in the police for many years. How will you ensure all appropriate staff make consistent use of body-worn video and audio-record interviews? | Home Office | |
| 1 | Access to phones in holding rooms is often poor. Information provision can also be weak. For example, some people we spoke to did not recall being informed of their right to legal advice. What steps are being taken to standardise provision in line with best practice, and to properly enforce non-compliance? | Other | |
| 2 | Ministers should end unwarranted variation and bring immigration detention facilities up to the minimum standards they require of the police. For example, police custody rules prohibit under-18s from mixing with unrelated adults, yet in facilities such as Edinburgh children may have to pass through rooms with unrelated adults to reach the toilet. How does the Minister propose to address this issue? | Ministry of Justice | |
| 2 | What mechanisms are in place to detect and address unusually low levels of complaints or staff whistleblowing at the facilities we monitor? | Home Office | |
| 3 | Ministers should also mandate that immigration detention procedures at least meet the same standards expected of the police. A particular area in need of improvement is healthcare: Policies and practices: A senior clinician should oversee healthcare policies and practices, approving any departure from standards applied in police custody. This would ensure that practices such as the failure to require routine clinical assessment of pregnant women detained at ports, and the lack of provision for people to take their own prescribed medicines in holding rooms – both clear disparities with police custody – are subject to clinical oversight. To date, we are not aware of any clinician having formally approved these practices. How will the Minister bring immigration detention healthcare policies and practices in line with standards applied in police custody? Provision at holding rooms: As in police custody suites, all monitored facilities should provide access to a healthcare professional, with provision based on clinical need rather than reliance on emergency services. There is no justification for inconsistent standards, such as dedicated healthcare at some airports but no provision at the facilities we monitor. In such circumstances it is unclear to us how Border Force and Immigration Enforcement can be sure that people with health conditions, or those who are pregnant, are fit to be detained and interviewed. How will the Minister guarantee every individual held in immigration receives consistent access to a healthcare professional, based on clinical need? Repeated | Ministry of Justice | |
| 3 | How did you investigate the apparent serious governance failures that led Mitie Care and Custody, in May 2024, to issue an instruction mandating the blanket use of handcuffs – a directive it later rescinded? | Home Office | |
| 4 | Just as it would be unacceptable for a police force to decide that some police stations were exempt from monitoring, it is not acceptable for the Home Office, as the detaining authority, to distinguish between holding rooms and controlled waiting areas with the effect that the latter are excluded from independent monitoring. This also leaves people detained in CWAs, sometimes for many hours, without the protection of statutory rules, including the time limits that apply to holding rooms. Will the Minister provide a timeframe by which all aspects of immigration detention are subject to independent monitoring, in line with OPCAT? | Home Office | |
| 4 | Please clarify when the standards for the care of vulnerable people were last reviewed, how they reflect current evidence, and how they can be effectively enforced. At present, several requirements are expressed in vague or subjective terms, for example, the standard that detainee custody officers should have a ‘meaningful’ conversation with vulnerable people after a fixed period- how do you define ‘meaningful’ and ensure this standard is consistently applied? Repeated | Home Office | |
| 5 | Standards of accommodation vary significantly across airports. For instance, Edinburgh has no showers, despite people being detained there for over 26 hours during this reporting period, whereas Aberdeen has two. We understand one barrier to achieving consistently high standards is that primary legislation restricts the measures the Home Office can require airport operators to implement to improve accommodation. How will the Minister ensure operators implement acceptable standards of accommodation in every airport? Repeated | Home Office | |
| 5 | What have you identified as the causes of avoidable delays in progressing cases and what are the specific actions being taken to address each cause, given that such delays unnecessarily prolong detention and create inefficiency? Repeated | Home Office |
Report details
- Establishment
- Scotland and Northern Ireland short-term holding facilities (STHF)
- Type
- Prison · Cat Short-term Holding Facility
- Report year
- 2025
- Published
- 18 December 2025
- Recommendations
- 11
Population
| Population | 2,562 |
Service providers
Facility Management
Mitie Care and Custody