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About us

The Brook House Inquiry is a public inquiry set up to investigate mistreatment of individuals who were detained at Brook House IRC between 1 April 2017 and 31 August 2017, as shown in the BBC Panorama programme “Under-Cover: Britain’s Immigration Secrets” aired on 4 September 2017. 

What is the purpose of the Inquiry?

The purpose of the Inquiry is to understand what happened at Brook House IRC, to identify learning and to make recommendations that would help to prevent a recurrence of such events.

What does mistreatment mean?

For the purposes of the Inquiry, ‘mistreatment’ is interpreted to mean treatment contrary to Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, namely torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Independent of government

The Inquiry is an independent statutory inquiry examining events at Brook House IRC between 1 April  2017 and 31 August 2017. 

  • Being independent means the Inquiry is not part of government and not run by a government department;
  • Being statutory means the Inquiry was converted from an existing investigation to an Inquiry under the Inquiries Act 2005 and has the power to compel witnesses to give evidence and produce documents.

Legislative framework

As a statutory public inquiry, the Inquiry will operate within the legal framework provided by the Inquiries Act (2005).  

Inquiries Act 2005

Inquiry Rules 2006

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