Recurring concern

Failure to reliably transfer safety-critical prisoner information to immigration detention staff

First to latest report 5 Aug 2015 — 2 Apr 2019

Reports that mention this concern
2
Times this concern has been raised
2
Stated actions linked to this concern
0

What this concern includes

Includes failures in the dedicated transfer and availability of safety-critical prisoner information between HMPPS, DEPMU and immigration removal-centre staff, including information from NOMIS, OASYS and comparable custody or risk systems, and failures to ensure IRC staff are aware of significant changes in detainees’ circumstances, removal directions or other relevant risk information.

What is not included
  • Excludes generic prison information-sharing failures that do not concern transfer to DEPMU or immigration removal-centre staff.
  • Excludes healthcare-only information sharing between prison healthcare and prison staff unless it is specifically part of the prison-to-immigration-detention transfer process.
  • Excludes failures in the subsequent clinical care, observation or risk management of detainees after relevant information has been reliably transferred.
  • Excludes unrelated police, probation, court or inter-Trust information-transfer processes.

Reports and published responses 2 reports

See individual reports that have raised this concern, and the actions taken in response

  1. West London

    AI-generated summary

    Tarek Mahmood CHOWDHURY · Prevention of Future Deaths report

    This summary was generated using AI from the published report. Please read the original report for the complete account.

    Report summary

    Tarek Mahmood CHOWDHURY was beaten to death by another detainee while detained at Heathrow Immigration Removal Centre on 1 December 2016. The report identified concerns about information sharing between prisons, the Home Office and immigration removal centres, including the availability of intelligence and other records. It also identified concerns about access to and operation of SystmOne healthcare records during the initial screening of detainees transferred from prison.

    Read the report on judiciary.uk

    Source evidence

    How this individual concern was interpreted

    PFD Monitor created a concise, searchable interpretation from the report wording shown below.

    PFD Monitor interpretation

    Failure to share prisoner information between HMPPS, DEPMU and IRC staff

    Wider context from the report

    “(1) That there is a failure to share information about prisoners who are to become detainees, between HMPPS and the Home Office’s DEPMU, and between HMPPS and staff in IRCs. The rolling out of Mercury intelligence to DEPMU/IRCs will not solve this problem if other information (in particular NOMIS and OASYS) is still not available to DEPMU/IRCs. This concern is addressed both to the Ministry of Justice (HMPPS) and to the Home Office (DEPMU/IRCs). ”

    Source location

    Tarek Mahmood CHOWDHURY · Prevention of Future Deaths report
    Page 2 · concerns

    Open source report

  2. Central Lincolnshire

    AI-generated summary

    Rubel Ahmed · Prevention of Future Deaths report

    This summary was generated using AI from the published report. Please read the original report for the complete account.

    Report summary

    Rubel Ahmed, who was detained at Morton Hall Immigration Removal Centre, was found hanging in his room on the evening of 5 September 2014 and was pronounced deceased shortly after midnight on 6 September 2014. The concerns included overnight locking of detainees in rooms, the adequacy of detention-awareness training, staff awareness of changes in detainees’ circumstances, insufficient protected time for personal officers, and the use of electrical leads that could be used as ligatures.

    Read the report on judiciary.uk

    Source evidence

    How this individual concern was interpreted

    PFD Monitor created a concise, searchable interpretation from the report wording shown below.

    PFD Monitor interpretation

    Failure to ensure detention staff awareness of significant changes in detainees' circumstances

    Wider context from the report

    “iii. STAFF AWARENESS OF CHANGES IN DETAINEES CIRCUMSTANCES INCLUDING REMOVAL DIRECTIONS: It was disclosed at the Inquest that staff members, who dealt with Mr Ahmed on the evening of 5th September, 2014 were not aware that he had been served with removal directions. Had staff been aware of this information it may have resulted in Mr Ahmed being monitored more comprehensively than was the case. My concerns relate to there being a need to implement a robust system to ensure that all relevant detention staff at Morton Hall IRC are aware of significant changes in detainees circumstances, including the service of removal directions upon them. ”

    Source location

    Rubel Ahmed · Prevention of Future Deaths report
    Page 1 · concerns

    Open source report

Actions and positions describe what organisations say in published responses. Implementation is not independently verified.

Back to top

Data last updated 7 September 2026