The latest news from the PPO! The Investigator, issue 9 is OUT NOW!

Decorative image from inside a prison.

Welcome to Issue 9 of The Investigator!

We have some great articles that highlight our work across our different functions and teams. They include the PPO’s recruitment of those with lived experience, our fatal incident investigations, the work we do to support people who complain to us and an article from one of our new members of staff who was, until recently, a prison officer. They show the variety of what we do and how we deliver against the strategic aims set out in our Business Plan and our Strategic Plan.

In other news, we are now able to return to working in our offices in Canary Wharf and, crucially, to visit prisons again to carry out our investigations. We have better technology to support remote working but we know there is no substitute for the face to face contact we have with staff and people in prison and so it is great to be back in person.

We published our 2020/21 Annual Report in September, where we shared examples of the cases we investigated during the year and some of the figures that show how demand for our work remains high, including the requirement to investigate COVID-19 related deaths in prisons. It’s worth a read and can be accessed via our website or the gov.uk site. As always, we welcome feedback from our stakeholders so do let us know what you think.

Thank you for reading.

Sue McAllister CB, Prisons and Probation Ombudsman

To read this newsletter as a PDF, click here

This month's featured articles:

From prison to working at the PPO

Drug-related deaths in prison

The Sanctions Protocol – working together

A Prison Officer at the PPO? A hopefully helpful perspective

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