One recommendation of Brook House mistreatment inquiry accepted, chairwoman says
Kate Eves, who led the public inquiry, told the BBC the Government was failing to listen to her proposals for ‘urgent change’.
The Government has agreed to just one of 33 recommendations made to prevent a repeat of the abuse experienced by migrants in the Brook House immigration centre scandal, the inquiry chairwoman has told the BBC.
Kate Eves said the Government was failing to listen to her proposals for “urgent change”, a year on from the public inquiry’s final report.
Ms Eves concluded there had been 19 incidents of mistreatment against detainees at the detention centre near Gatwick Airport in West Sussex over a five-month period in 2017.
She told the BBC the Conservative government’s response was “inadequate and disappointing” and that Labour needed to show more commitment.
Recommendations made in September last year included issues such as use of force and staff training.
The introduction of a 28-day detention time limit was rejected by the Government, alongside another proposal.
She said the one recommendation the Government has agreed to is that the Home Office and private contractors make sure staff are aware of the ban on handcuffing people behind their backs while sitting down, which can result in asphyxiation.
Ms Eves added there was “no information at all” about a further five recommendations being accepted, while it was not possible to be sure about another 23 directions.
A Home Office spokesman said: “The abuse that took place at Brook House in 2017 was unacceptable and we are committed to ensuring it will never happen again.”
The Conservative government published its response to the public inquiry on March 19 this year, summarising progress since 2017 and addressing all the ten areas of concern raised in the report.
It is understood the new Government will set out its approach in due course.
But Ms Eves said there was a “dark thread” of evidence that the Home Office was failing to listen to the inquiry it had set up.
She told the BBC: “As a taxpayer I would be really concerned if there’s no apparent willingness to respond to the recommendations.”
On the risk of abuse at Brook House happening again, she said: “It becomes a question of when, not if, such abuses will come to light again.
“I remain extremely concerned that the wholescale failures and misapplications of the rules identified in my report continue.
“This in turn leaves vulnerable people at significant risk.”
