Peter Clarke, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, welcomed the report and recommendations published by the Justice Select Committee following its hearing on HMP Liverpool.

Mr Clarke particularly welcomed the finding that HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) has failed to respond properly to HM Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) recommendations to improve safety, conditions and other outcomes for prisoners.

The Committee’s concerns about the failure to deliver on recommendations was, Mr Clarke said, “sadly no more than a continuation of a trend I reported on in my last Annual Report, when for the first time we found that the number of our recommendations that had been implemented fell behind those that were not.

“It was all the more troubling that the Committee heard that senior HMPPS leadership had relied on reassurances from HMP Liverpool that previous HMIP recommendations, from our May 2015 inspection, were being successfully implemented. Michael Spurr, CEO of HMPPS, told the Committee: “In May, before the inspection, the prison was reporting that 66% of the recommendations were green, on-track and being delivered.” As Mr Spurr commented: “That was not right.” Mr Clarke added: “When we inspected HMP Liverpool in September 2017, we found that a mere 25% had actually been achieved.”

Inadequate implementation of HMIP recommendations was a feature not only at Liverpool, but also in a number of other prisons. For instance, in January 2018, following an inspection at the “fundamentally unsafe” HMP Nottingham, Mr Clarke issued the first Urgent Notification letter, under a new protocol which requires the Secretary of State for Justice to take public responsibility for improvements in prisons where inspectors raise significant concerns.

Mr Clarke added: “The response from the Secretary of State to the first use of the Urgent Notification protocol in the case of HMP Nottingham was welcome. However, the fact that the Urgent Notification had to be issued confirmed a failure to implement previous inspection recommendations In HMP Nottingham.

“Only 12 out of 48 recommendations had been achieved, a shocking failure given that the previous two inspections had been announced in advance, to give the prison the best possible opportunity to respond. The Secretary of State said that the prison had been in “Special Measures for some time and this had meant that steps were already being taken to support the prison to address safety.” Sadly, these steps clearly did not include our safety recommendations from the February 2016 inspection. A mere two out of 13 had been achieved. It is tragic that in recent days, since the Urgent Notification protocol was invoked, there has been another apparently self-inflicted death at HMP Nottingham.”

Inspectors who visited HMP Nottingham in January 2018 assessed safety as ‘poor’, the lowest HMIP grading and the third consecutive time inspectors found this to be the case. Between the 2016 and 2018 inspections, levels of self-harm had risen “very significantly” and eight prisoners were believed to have taken their own lives (with some cases still subject to a coroner’s inquest).

Mr Clarke welcomed the Committee’s recommendation that independent scrutiny needs to be injected into monitoring the implementation of inspection reports: “It is crucial that the progress in implementing HMIP recommendations is transparent and independently verifiable. The abject failure of too many prisons to take inspection reports seriously must stop.”

– ENDS –

Notes to editors

1. HM Inspectorate of Prisons is an independent inspectorate, inspecting places of detention to report on conditions and treatment, and promote positive outcomes for those detained and the public.
2. Please contact John Steele at HM Inspectorate of Prisons press office on 020 3334 0357 or 07880 787452, or at john.steele@justice.gov.uk if you would like more information.