Berwyn inspection report 2025

Summary

This inspection found a disappointing drop in our healthy prison test score for safety, from reasonably good to not sufficiently good, which reflected the many challenges faced by this complex category C prison in North Wales. Drugs were more available, and levels of violence and self-harm were much higher than at our 2022 inspection, with the rates among the highest compared to similar jails. Berwyn is the largest public sector run prison in the estate and housed 1,937 men at the time of the inspection. Since our last visit, the population of the jail has grown in complexity. Although originally designed with a small reception function to service the courts of North Wales, population pressures in the North West of England and West Midlands have been so acute that this has now been expanded. On this inspection, around 200 prisoners were remanded or unsentenced prisoners, many of whom were coming from courts in Merseyside, Greater Manchester and Lancashire, with some prisoners coming from as far as Preston.

Inspection ratings