D.9 Staffing and culture

Introduction

1. Rule 45 of the Detention Centre Rules 2001 sets out general duties for officers in immigration removal centres (IRCs), which include that:

“At all times the treatment of detained persons shall be such as to encourage their self-respect, a sense of personal responsibility and tolerance towards others.”¹

2. During the relevant period (1 April 2017 to 31 August 2017), G4S and the Home Office did not provide a sufficiently caring, secure or decent environment for detained people or staff at Brook House. As Professor Mary Bosworth (the Inquiry’s cultural expert) observed, there were:

“significant questions about the relationship between care, trust, and security in Brook House and about the extent to which staff in Brook House treated detained people with dignity or decency”.²

3. The culture at Brook House, particularly among staff, set the tone for interactions with, and the treatment of, detained people. This chapter assesses evidence of a toxic culture during the relevant period, including the ‘prisonisation’ of Brook House and the dehumanisation of detained people, which reflected a number of staffing and cultural issues.

1. Detention Centre Rules 2001, Rule 45(6[↩]
2. INQ000064_007 para 2.6; see also para 3.15 regarding the lack of respect for other staff[↩]