Skip to content

All content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0, except where otherwise stated.

To view this licence, visit:
https://nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3

or write to:
Information Policy Team,
The National Archives,
Kew,
London TW9 4DU

or email: psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk.

This publication is available at:
https://ppo.gov.uk.

© Crown copyright

Adrian Usher publishes first Annual Report highlighting significant changes made by the PPO  

Published:

11 July 2024 – Today Prisons and Probation Ombudsman Adrian Usher has published his first Annual Report covering the year 2023-2024. 

Adrian said: “I was very proud to be selected to lead the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman and so I wanted to reflect this in my first Annual Report.  

Our readers will see that this report is different from previous years as I believe its focus should be on what we have delivered”. 

The 2023/24 report therefore highlights the tangible differences the PPO has made to operational delivery and safety for those services in our remit.  

Some of the changes highlighted include: 

  • refreshing our vision and values, which has informed: 
  • being more transparent by: 
  • publishing summaries of upheld complaint investigations 
  • publishing the names of fatal incident investigations we are carrying out earlier 
  • streamlining natural cause death investigation reporting 
  • the launch of Independent Prisoner Complaint Investigations 
  • making fewer, but more strategic recommendations to institutions 

We also highlight that there was an increase in self-inflicted deaths (104, 13 more than last year). This is sadly the highest number of self-inflicted deaths since 2016/17.  

Key statistics from 2023/24: 

Complaints investigations:  

  • we received 4,575 complaints 
  • 4,345 of these were about prisons, 134 more than last year 
  • The most common complaint categories were: 
  • Property (27%) 
  • Staff behaviour (10%) 
  • Administration (8%) 

Fatal incident investigations: 

  • We started investigations into 360 deaths 
  • 292 of these were in prisons, and 53 of these occurred post-release from establishments (within 14 days)  
  • We made 718 recommendations to services and establishments: 
  • 281 were about healthcare provision 
  • 84 were about general administration 
  • 79 were about suicide and self-harm prevention 
  • 74 were about emergency response 

Click here to read the 2023/24 Annual Report and statistics