Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the safety of prisoners at HMP Brixton.

Prisoners are risk assessed before being allocated to HMP Brixton. On arrival each prisoner will have their cell sharing risk assessment reviewed before they are allocated to a cell. For any prisoner arriving who is subject to self-harm, monitoring procedures will be reviewed.

All incidents within the prison are monitored and recorded. Violent incidents are monitored by time, location and the cause, if known. Concern about individual prisoners or the stability of any unit will be reported by an intelligence report. These are monitored daily by the Duty Governor, and Brixton is required to report stability levels to the Regional office on a weekly basis. Self-harm issues and violent incidents are considered by the Head of Safety and by the monthly safer custody meeting. This meeting reviews any serious incident of self-harm or death in custody.

The Health & Safety manager is responsible for monitoring H&S issues and there is a monthly H&S meeting chaired by a Senior Manager.

Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons report on the safety of Prisons, and the NOMS Internal Audit team audit safer custody procedures.