Recommendation AS-5: Detainee Capture and Condition Records
From The Report of the Al-Sweady Inquiry, published 17 December 2014.
Recommendation
Appropriate procedures should be introduced to ensure that there is an accurate and detailed contemporaneous record of the circumstances relating to the original capture/detention of a prisoner and his general physical condition (including an appropriate photographic record) on arrival at the Prisoner Handling Area together with an explanation from the soldier responsible for the detention of the individual of any obvious physical injuries suffered by the detainee in question.
In brief (written by this site)
The Ministry of Defence reported in March 2015 that it had implemented the recommendation in full, stating that it had introduced procedures to ensure adequate recording of detainee captures and their physical condition (Ministry of Defence, Mar 2015). Previously, Secretary of State for Defence Michael Fallon accepted the recommendation in principle in a December 2014 statement to the House of Commons while commissioning urgent work on its practical implications (Michael Fallon response, Dec 2014).
AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 26 Sep 2026. The record below is the sources' own words.
Government response
Sir Thayne Forbes has made just nine recommendations, and he acknowledges the progress that the Ministry has made since 2004 to improve all aspects of the prisoner-handling system—from policy and doctrine to unit-level instructions and procedures as well as training and oversight—and to ensure it complies with domestic and international law. I accept all nine recommendations in principle. I have commissioned urgent work on their practical implications—in particular, we will need to ensure that they will not prevent the armed forces from carrying out vital tasks—and I will announce to the House my detailed conclusions as soon as I can.
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 nine recommendations in principle together, in one passage of his statement to the House of Commons on 17 December 2014. That passage is shown on each recommendation and is not a response to any one of them alone. He said he would announce his detailed conclusions later. His written statement of 12 March 2015 (HCWS383) and the report on implementation he placed in the Library of the House that day (deposited paper DEP2015-0312) give the Ministry of Defence's account of each recommendation; they are shown as status updates.
Delivery
Ministry of Defence says completed (12 March 2015)
The Ministry of Defence has implemented in full four recommendations (Recommendations 3, 5, 7, and 9). These call for, respectively, the dating and retention of training material; the introduction of procedures to ensure the adequate recording of the capture of individuals and their physical condition on capture; the introduction of safeguards during the strip-searching of detainees; and provision for the recording of medical decisions on the suitability of detainees for detention and questioning.
From: Report on implementation of Al-Sweady Inquiry recommendations
Site note: The source gives this passage once, for recommendations 3, 5, 7 and 9 together. The same words are recorded on AS-3, AS-5, AS-7 and AS-9.
Responsible bodies
Themes and tags
Who has spoken
- Ministry of Defence
Response, delivery statement