Upheld complaint against the Governor of HMP Onley
Complaint category:
Categorisation, progression & release preparation
Month investigation completed:
July
Year investigation completed:
2025
The prisoner complained that their progression was not being supported by HMP Onley. IPCI found the failure to facilitate access to a programme had blocked the prisoner’s progression.
Recommendations/outcome:
There were no meaningful recommendations IPCI could make in respect of the prisoner accessing groupwork programmes.
Upheld complaint against the Governor of HMP Fosse Way
Complaint category:
Security
Month investigation completed:
July
Year investigation completed:
2025
The prisoner complained that they were punished for refusing to undergo an X-Ray Body Scan on arrival at HMP Fosse Way. Fosse Way did not provide any security intelligence or reasonable suspicion related to the prisoner, to justify asking them to be X-Ray Body Scanned. Nor did they provide any monthly security meeting minutes, in the form of up to date intelligence, to show the prisoner was in an identified cohort of prisoners, which justified use of the X-Ray Body Scanner.
Recommendations/outcome:
We recommended the prison gave the prisoner an apology, amended their local Security Strategy to reflect national policy and quash the adjudication.
Partially upheld complaint against the Governor of HMP Isle of Wight
Complaint category:
Property
Month investigation completed:
July
Year investigation completed:
2025
The prisoner complained that some of their property had been lost by HMP Isle of Wight following a cell clearance. Isle of Wight were unable to provide a copy of the cell clearance certificate and so, it was not possible to evidence if the correct cell clearance procedures were followed or if the property was missing prior to the cell clearance.
Recommendations/outcome:
The prisoner has been compensated for the missing items.
Partially upheld complaint against the Governor of HMP Whatton
Complaint category:
Visits, calls & letters
Month investigation completed:
June
Year investigation completed:
2025
The prisoner complained that there was a three-month delay in adding legal telephone numbers to their pin phone account.
Recommendations/outcome:
The complaint was partially upheld due to the length of time it took to add the telephone numbers to the prisoner’s pin phone account. However, as the prison had already initiated remedial action, we were unable to offer any further recommendations, as no additional remedial steps or reasonable suggestions could be identified.
Partially upheld complaint against the Governor of HMP Garth
Complaint category:
Work, pay & money
Month investigation completed:
June
Year investigation completed:
2025
The prisoner complained that they were not selected for a work program, and the prison had provided a blanket response as to why their application was rejected.
Recommendations/outcome:
The complaint was partially upheld as Garth should have provided a fuller explanation for the reasons of the rejected application. However, IPCI considered the prisoner would not have been eligible for the program due to their employment history. No recommendations made.
Partially upheld complaint against the Governor of HMP Pentonville
Complaint category:
Visits, calls & letters
Month investigation completed:
June
Year investigation completed:
2025
The prisoner’s complaint was made in relation to difficulties using the in-cell telephones to contact legal representatives at HMP Pentonville. Whilst IPCI did not uphold this element of the complaint, we noted that HMP Pentonville had rejected this complaint on the basis that it was a welfare issue, which they said fell outside the scope of the formal complaints process.
Recommendations/outcome:
We consider that the complaint should have been dealt with under the formal complaints process and highlighted that HMP Pentonville should have taken a problem-solving approach when dealing with the prisoner’s complaint.
Partially upheld complaint against the Governor of HMP Belmarsh
Complaint category:
Security
Month investigation completed:
June
Year investigation completed:
2025
The prisoner’s initial complaint was made in relation to body scan searches at HMP Belmarsh. Whilst IPCI did not uphold this element of the complaint, we noted that the response provided to the COMP1 form was very brief and did not provide an adequate or meaningful reply to the complaint, as provided in the Prisoner Complaints Policy Framework.
Recommendations/outcome:
The prison did not give an explanation as to why the response provided to the COMP1 form was so brief and we highlighted this failure to follow policy by partially upholding the prisoner’s complaint.
Partially upheld complaint against the Governor of HMP Long Lartin
Complaint category:
Adjudication & IEP
Month investigation completed:
June
Year investigation completed:
2025
The prisoner complained that he had been downgraded to the basic regime on the Incentive Earned Privileges (IEP) scheme and that the prison had not complied with procedures in local policy, such as allowing him to attend the seven-day review and make representations, when doing so.
The investigation found that while the downgrade was warranted and while information about the downgrade had been recorded digitally, there was evidence that some later procedures had not been carried out in line with the prison’s own local policy.
Recommendations/outcome:
We wrote to the Governor of Long Lartin to make him aware of these procedural issues, so staff could be reminded that local policy be complied with to ensure that the IEP scheme is being run fairly and transparently.
Partially upheld complaint against the Governor of HMP High Down
Complaint category:
Work, pay & money
Month investigation completed:
May
Year investigation completed:
2025
A prisoner complained that the prison was being reluctant to process the competition money they had won at HMP High Down in January 2025. The IPCI investigation found that the prison had already paid the prisoner but had failed to let them know this in their appeal response. Because the prison gave a poor and incorrect response, the prisoner had to take the complaint to IPCI. That part of the complaint was upheld.
Recommendations/outcome:
We hold the view that this complaint should have been resolved by the prison without reference to IPCI. We highlighted this, and the poor complaint response to the Governor.
Partially upheld complaint against the Governor of HMP Wakefield
Complaint category:
Staff behaviour
Month investigation completed:
May
Year investigation completed:
2025
The prisoner complained about being placed in handcuffs during an internal move from Reception to the Close Supervision Centre (CSC). The investigation established that the prisoner was a high-risk category A CSC prisoner so the decision to use restraints was both reasonable and policy compliant, although written justification should always be completed.
Recommendations/outcome:
The investigation found that staff had not completed a written justification for handcuffs being applied on this occasion and the complaint was therefore partially upheld. This was discussed with HMP Wakefield who agreed that they would ensure the necessary paperwork would be completed going forward.
