Government “must not be complacent” towards fire safety in prisons

In 2024-2025 alone, there were 2,932 recorded fires in prison. Despite this, HMPPS announced in March that it would no longer be able to meet a long-standing commitment to ensure that all cells in England will have automatic fire detection systems installed by the end of 2027, blaming underinvestment by the previous Government, the collapse of a contractor and lack of prison capacity.

The Justice and Home Affairs Committee notes that this is “far from the first time” that automatic fire detection system-focused works have been delayed and timelines have slipped.

The House of Lords Committee argues that, considering the level of overcrowding in prisons, it’s “simply not credible” that HMPPS could not reasonably predict capacity constraints. “Either HMPPS knew and did not act,” observes the Committee, “or chose to bury its head in the sand until such time as disclosure was unavoidable.”

The Justice and Home Affairs Committee has now called on the Government to publish plans to introduce automatic fire detection systems and update Parliament on this matter “at least” on an annual basis so that both the plans and progress can be effectively scrutinised.

Preventative measures

The House of Lords Committee praises preventative measures taken by HMPPS such as the Safer Vape Pen Project, which introduces vape pens in prisons with built-in safety features to prevent fire setting, in turn leading to a significant reduction in the number of fires started.

Further, the Justice and Home Affairs Committee encourages the Government to improve preventative work in this area through sharing Best Practice and supporting implementation. “However,” warns the Committee, “until the root causes – such as overcrowding, poor mental health support and a lack of purposeful activity – are effectively addressed, HMPPS will find that it’s fighting a losing battle and fires will continue to be a problem.”

As Crown Premises, publicly run prisons benefit from Crown Immunity status, which means that they cannot be subject to criminal prosecution (with some significant exceptions). Fire safety is not one of those exceptions.

Alongside this, the regulator – ie the Crown Premises Fire Safety Inspectorate (CPFSI) – is expected to inspect fire safety in all prisons as well as in other Crown Premises, but has just 11 members of staff on its books coupled with limited enforcement powers.

The Justice and Home Affairs Committee recommends strengthening the CPFSI’s powers, boosting its resources and reviewing the application of Crown Immunity to prisons regarding fire safety, which “poses a barrier” to fire safety improvement on the prison estate.

Lack of transparency

Lord Foster of Bath, chair of the Justice and Home Affairs Committee in the House of Lords, said: “HMPPS has demonstrated a lack of transparency regarding progress on fire safety in prisons. It’s deeply disappointing that it has required Freedom of Information requests and litigation from external partners such as the Howard League to secure information on progress to introduce automatic fire detection systems in particular and fire safety improvement works more generally. The argument from HMPPS that it would be ‘unwise’ to predict when works will be completed suggests either a lack of candour, a lack of competence or, indeed, both.”

Lord Foster continued: “The fire at HMP Highpoint [a Category C prison in Suffolk] at the tail end of April this year shows how effectively HMPPS staff and the Emergency Services can respond to a fire that’s potentially very serious. However, we are alarmed at the discrepancy between what senior leaders at HMPPS are telling us versus prison officers and governors regarding fire drills and training. We fear that, without a resolution to the prison staffing crisis and rigorous and dedicated fire safety training, the response at HMP Highpoint risks becoming the exception rather than the norm.”

In addition, Lord Foster commented: “We believe that stronger oversight is essential as in several cases senior HMPPS officials seemed complacent regarding fire safety in prison. They assured us that progress was being made on introducing fire safety equipment despite long and repeated delays to this process taking place. They were not aware of prevention practices being developed in prisons and appeared to have no plans in place for how to identify and disseminate good practice.”

Concerns over policy

Lord Foster explained: “Officials were also unaware of concerns raised by the regulator regarding their fire safety policies and appeared to misunderstand the powers held by the regulator. Problems cannot be promptly addressed and change delivered if there’s no drive among leaders to do so. The House of Lords Committee saw in HMPPS officials a recognition of the problem, but not the restless determination required to swiftly rectify the situation.”

In conclusion, Lord Foster affirmed: “We hope that the Government will take our recommendations seriously in order to save lives. We look forward to receiving a response.”