Recommendation BAHA-51: Prisoner Handling DVD Update
From The Report of the Baha Mousa Inquiry - Volume III, published 8 September 2011.
Recommendation
The 2005 prisoner handling DVD should be amended to avoid misleading messages about sight deprivation in the context of interrogation, and the inappropriate presentation of the interrogation facility. Where such training materials touch on specialist areas such as tactical questioning and interrogation, the relevant subject matter experts should be consulted. “Bagged and tagged” is an ambiguous phrase which should not be used. In reviewing the DVD, consideration should also be given to:
(1) whether the prohibition on the five techniques might be incorporated into the film; and
(2) whether all of the CPERS handling within the DVD is commensurate with best practice, allowing for the need for realism and that CPERS treatment in military operations may in circumstances need to be firm as well as fair.
In brief (written by this site)
The Inquiry recommended revising the 2005 prisoner handling training video. In March 2014, Mark Francois, Minister for the Armed Forces, announced in a written statement to the House of Commons that the Ministry of Defence had taken action to consider and address all accepted recommendations in the report, without specifically mentioning the video (Mr Mark Francois, Mar 2014). Earlier, in September 2011, Liam Fox, Secretary of State for Defence, informed the House that he was accepting in principle all of the report's recommendations with one reservation (Dr Liam Fox response, Sep 2011).
AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 12 Oct 2026. The record below is the sources' own words.
Government response
I can inform this House that I am accepting in principle all of his recommendations with one reservation.
How this response relates to the recommendation
Site note: The words are the Secretary of State for Defence's statement to the House of Commons of 8 September 2011 as the Ministry of Defence published it on GOV.UK, which is the page the site cites. The Official Report of the statement as delivered (HC Deb vol 532, col 571) differs slightly in wording: it reads "I can inform the House that I am accepting in principle all his recommendations with one reservation."
Blanket government agreement does not establish acceptance or delivery by each addressee. Some response passages cover groups of recommendations.
Scope of the government response
The Secretary of State for Defence accepted all of the report's 73 recommendations in principle together, in one sentence of his statement to the House of Commons on 8 September 2011, with one reservation: the recommendation on tactical questioning (BAHA-23), which he said he could not accept. That sentence is not a response to any one recommendation alone, and the Ministry of Defence published no response to each recommendation. A written ministerial statement of 27 March 2014 said the Ministry of Defence had taken action to consider and address all the accepted recommendations, and said of recommendation 44 that the existing inspection regime did not require further amendment.
Delivery
Ministry of Defence says completed (27 March 2014)
I am pleased to announce that the Ministry of Defence has now taken action to consider and address all the accepted recommendations in the report.
From: Baha Mousa Report, Mr Mark Francois, Minister for the Armed Forces
Source
Responsible bodies
Themes and tags
Who has spoken
- Ministry of Defence
Response, delivery statement