PPO COVID-19 – March 26 Update

Following the latest Government advice about the national response to COVID-19, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman has made the very difficult, but unavoidable, decision to reduce our service to the people who can complain to us. We have kept our office open for as long as we could but, unfortunately, it is no longer possible to do so. This means that we can no longer access incoming post or send post out, so we cannot read and reply to letters from prisoners. We will ensure that they receive the most accurate and up to date information. Our telephone service, and our PPO mailbox, will still operate as normal.

We have also ceased all visits to prisons. As we can no longer visit prisons, our investigation of fatal incidents will also be affected. We will continue to be informed of all deaths and will open new investigations as normal, but it is likely that we will need to extend our timetables and/or suspend cases until we are able to gather information and investigate safely.

These changes are temporary and we will review them regularly so that we can return to normal working as soon as possible.