A House of Lords committee says the Prison Service will miss its deadline for fitting automatic fire detectors (AFD) in prisons. Peers said they were “profoundly concerned” about the delay across England and Wales. The target date was the end of 2027.
The Lords Justice and Home Affairs Committee published its report on 5 November. Liberal Democrat peer Lord Foster of Bath chairs the committee.
Peers rejected the idea that HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) could not foresee the capacity pressures. The report said: “Either HMPPS knew and did not act or chose to bury their heads in the sand until such time as disclosure was unavoidable”.
The committee also said it was “deeply concerned” that most prisons lack automatic water misting systems. HMPPS’s own technical standards require them.
The Government has given no timetable for finishing these or any other fire safety works beyond AFD. It told peers it would follow a “guiding principle”. Under it, the work would go as fast as possible, taking out as many places as the system could safely spare.
Evacuation drills
On staff training and fire drills, peers heard from HMPPS, the Prison Officers’ Association and the Prison Governors’ Association. Peers said they were alarmed by the gap between the two accounts. Senior HMPPS leaders told one story; officers and governors told another.
HMPPS had told the committee that 95 per cent of prisons had carried out physical evacuations. The report said the true figure was likely much lower, because some of these appeared to be desktop exercises. HMPPS corrected the figure only after the committee prompted it.
The Howard League said some disabled members in prison had never taken part in a physical evacuation drill. One prisoner the charity surveyed wrote: “It’s broke and sat on my shelf. I have mentioned it, more than once, to no avail”.
Peers shared the charity’s concern about secrecy. Progress figures came out only through Freedom of Information requests and litigation by groups such as the Howard League. HMPPS had argued that predicting a finish date would be ‘unwise’. The report said this suggested a lack of candour, a lack of competence, or both.
HMPPS updates its Fire Safety Improvement List every six months. The committee wants it to publish a version after each update.
Crown Immunity
Publicly run prisons are Crown premises, so Crown Immunity protects them from criminal prosecution over fire safety. Their regulator is the Crown Premises Fire Safety Inspectorate (CPFSI). It covers all prisons and other Crown premises with just 11 staff and limited enforcement powers.
The CPFSI plans to inspect only eight prisons this year. At that rate, the report said, it would take 14 years and six months to inspect every prison in England.
Peers called it “farcical” that governors of public prisons receive enforcement notices over matters often outside their control.
The committee wants an independent review of Crown Immunity in prisons, reporting within 12 months. It noted that every private prison has AFD fitted, while some public prisons do not. In its view, immunity removes the fear of prosecution that pushes private operators to fix problems.
