Source · IOPC Learning Case

Recommendation - Metropolitan Police Service, January 2023

Metropolitan Police Service Ref: 2020/134456 Recommended 16 Jan 2023 Response due 13 Mar 2023

Custody and detention

We identified organisational learning from a death or serious injury review. The case related to a man who had been arrested but required mental health assessments at a hospital. He had also tested positive for COVID-19. Once discharged, he was taken directly to prison rather than a custody suite to mitigate the risk of spreading the virus. The following day, the man had taken his own life in the prison cell.

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Recommendations

1 total

Recommendation 1

The IOPC recommends that the Metropolitan Police Service ensures that Digital / Person Escort Record (DPER / PER) forms are completed for all detainees where transportation is required to another Constabulary, Court, Immigration Detention Centre, HMP, HMYOI, and other relevant destinations, regardless of the start point. This includes when the detainee has not physically attended police custody. An example would be if a person is being conveyed from hospital to prison without attending police custody at any point of that period of detention, the escorting officer must ensure that a DPER is created to allow effective briefing of risks and needs of that person being transferred to the receiving organisation / staff, for instance, HMP reception. This will be facilitated by the escorting officer contacting the relevant MPS custody suite and arranging the completion of a DPER request which will be sent to the destination point prior to the destination point accepting custody of the detainee. All DPER / PER forms must also be properly reviewed by supervisors to ensure they contain all pertinent information. Relevant policy should be amended to clarify this point. This follows a DSI review whereby a detainee was transferred directly from hospital to prison. The man was not taken to police custody suite on this occasion to mitigate the risk of passing Covid-19 to others, and as such, no PER form was completed. Soon after his arrival in prison, the man had sadly taken his life in his prison cell. Had a PER form been completed and transferred between the officers who conveyed him from hospital and prison staff, an immediate risk assessment may have been established and staff could possibly have been better informed of his ill mental health. Do you accept the recommendation? Yes

Addressed to: Metropolitan Police Service

Linked bodies: Metropolitan Police Service

Accepted

Force response

Accepted action: The Metropolitan Police Service (“MPS”) has reviewed and accepts this recommendation by the IOPC.The Met Detention Command is in the process of reviewing the existing MPS Custody Policy to include a responsibility on Met Detention staff and officers to facilitate the effective completion of DPER (Digital Person Escort Record) transfer reports when transporting detainees. This review and amendment will be conducted and completed within 3 months. This will include a mandatory requirement for proactive assessment of vulnerability, the person needs and all risks to that person or another. This amendment will include and address all scenarios and areas highlighted in the IOPC recommendation.This will be centred on the escorting officer conducting a Vulnerability Assessment Framework (VAF) proactively seeking to identify all vulnerability including current mental health, or their disability, age, physical illness, suicidal ideation, etc. This duty will run from initial interaction and follow through to point of handover to destination to ensure that continuum changes are detailed throughout the life cycle of police interaction.Where vulnerability is identified this will also require the completion of a MERLIN report (MPS database for the reporting of safeguarding related incidents) and allow ongoing care and welfare pathways that can be accessed via MASH (Multi Agency Safeguarding Hubs) and probation services , ensuring ongoing information capture and improving outcome options in the future.The overarching supervision of a custody officer ensures that a substantive sergeant with experience of the transfer PECS (Prisoner Escort Custody Services) risk management requirements safeguards effective risk documentation and information communication.