Case studies: complaints from those under 21

As in previous years, the number of complaints from those under 21 in 2018/19 remained disproportionately small: accounting for just 26 of the 2,569 that we investigated. We know there are a number of reasons why young people do not… Read More

PPO’s Quarterly Statistics: July to September 2019

Every issue of The Investigator provides you with the headline statistics from PPO’s work in the previous complete quarter. These headlines will cover the Ombudsman’s independent investigations of both complaints and fatal incidents. If you would like to know more,… Read More

Investigating cases involving IPP prisoners

Imprisonment for Public Protection Imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentences were introduced in 2005 and were designed to protect the public from serious or repeat offenders whose crimes did not merit a life sentence. Those sentenced to an IPP are… Read More

Property pitfalls and how to avoid them

From the Complaints Investigator’s Desk Complaints about missing or lost property consistently make up around a third of complaints the PPO investigates and we uphold almost half of them.  In 2018/19, we upheld 46% of property complaints, compared to 32%… Read More

Welcome to The Investigator, Summer 2019, Issue 3

The Investigator, Summer 2019, Issue 3   Welcome to your latest edition of the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman’s quarterly newsletter, “The Investigator”.   We include in this edition: a preview of what will be included in our Annual Report, due… Read More

Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, Investigator, newsletter

Welcome to Issue #2 of The Investigator: April ’19

Reviewing the PPO/HMPPS Impact Symposium 2019. Since April 2012, we have made over 10,000 recommendations (including those repeated) in the course of 1,996 investigations into deaths in custody. Virtually all of those are accepted by the prison at the time… Read More

Case Studies: complaints from probation supervisees

We received just 55 complaints from probation supervisees in 2017/18, a slight increase on the previous year. Many were unhappy about the reports written about them, or the assessments of their risk (of re-offending, or harm to others). In some… Read More

PPO/HMPPS Impact Symposium: the PPO challenge to HMPPS

The Ombudsman set expectations for the day by posing a series of questions to delegates, encouraging them to consider the impact of the PPO’s recommendations, and what more collectively we could do to change behaviours, embed learning and avoid repeating… Read More

PPO/HMPPS Impact Symposium: a response from HMPPS in Wales

To provide a response to the question: “Are PPO recommendations being properly implemented?”, we welcomed Prison Group Director for HMPPS in Wales, Kenny Brown, along with Group Safety Lead Sophie Lozano, to talk about the positive changes made by HMPPS… Read More