Swaleside urgent notification 2025
Report for Swaleside Prison
Summary
Urgent Notification for HMP Swaleside issued 15 December 2025. Inspection debriefing paper HMP Swaleside debrief paper ( PDF, 268 KB ) ( PDF, 268 KB ) HM INSPECTORATE OF PRISONS 3rd floor 10 South Colonnade Canary Wharf London E14 4PU Tel: 020 3334 0353 E-mail:[email protected] HM Chief Inspector of Prisons CHARLIE TAYLOR Date: 15 December 2025 Deputy Prime Minister Ministry of Justice 102 Petty France London SW1H 9AJ Dear Deputy Prime Minister, Urgent Notification: HMP Swaleside In accordance with the Protocol between HM Chief Inspector of Prisons and the Ministry of Justice dated October 2019, I am writing to you to invoke the Urgent Notification process following our unannounced inspection of HMP Swaleside between 1st and 11th December 2025. The protocol sets out that this letter will be placed in the public domain, and that the Secretary of State commits to respond publicly within 28 days. This is the fifth time we have inspected Swaleside since 2016 and, as the table below shows, it is a prison that has a record of poor performance. At this most recent inspection, the jail attracted our lowest healthy prison assessments in all four of our tests – safety, respect, purposeful activity and preparation for release – and none of the concerns raised at our 2023 inspection had been fully addressed.