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Annual Report 2019-20

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HMI Prisons_Annual Report and Accounts 2019-20 WEB (PDF, 8.3 MB)

This Annual Report covers reports published from 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020.

On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced that the new coronavirus disease was a pandemic. On 16 March, the United Kingdom government announced social distancing measures, and on 23 March, strict new rules to contain the spread of the virus.

In response to this, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, Peter Clarke, announced on 17 March 2020 that all inspections scheduled to the end of May 2020 would be suspended.

To continue to fulfil our statutory duties and international obligations placed on the UK as a result of its ratification of OPCAT, we devised ‘short scrutiny visits’ (SSVs). This were essentially short, announced visits to prisons by a small number of inspectors for one day, who looked at a small number of key issues relevant to the basic rights of prisoners: safety, decency and health.