Prison
Cat B local
Key Concerns Identified
Positive Findings
Wormwood Scrubs
IMB Annual Report 2022 · Published 7 March 2023
HMP Wormwood Scrubs experienced a slow return to normal regime during the reporting year ending May 2022, impacted by Covid-19 restrictions and persistent staff shortages. The Board noted some improvements in reception and healthcare provision but raised significant concerns regarding the poor quality of food, high number of cancelled hospital appointments, and long delays for mental health transfers. Key challenges included disproportionate use of force against Black prisoners, a largely closed library and depleted education, and a patchy key worker scheme.
Positive Findings
The Board notes welcome improvements reported by HMIP, and constructive changes implemented in reception and induction processes, combined with trained Listeners, have created a welcoming atmosphere. The appointment of a modern matron and paramedic has positively impacted healthcare provision, and social care assessments have significantly improved. The renovation of the visits building is appreciated, and the installation of in-cell telephony greatly assisted family contact. Segregation staff are commended for their exceptional patience and care, and new diversity focus groups, prisoner forums, and food forums aim to better incorporate the 'prisoner voice'.
Key Concerns
Equality/Diversity
Repeated
a continued oversight in reception is the failure to produce certain key information for prisoners in their own language – despite a translation service being available.
Safety
Of great concern to the Board and the prison is the fact that, of the six deaths in custody in this reporting year, all bar one were of prisoners on remand (4.1.2).
Safety
An increase in reported incidents of self-harm is concerning
Equality/Diversity
Repeated
Black prisoners remain disproportionately represented in such incidents (4.5.3).
Safety
Illicit items remain an issue for the prison, despite scanning and refurbished windows which make an improvement in security. Mandatory drug testing, halted during the pandemic, had not resumed by the end of the reporting year.
Estate/Conditions
the problems of an antiquated heating system continue, with some parts of the prison freezing, whilst other parts are overheated, resulting in great discomfort for some prisoners.
Food/Catering
Repeated
prisoners have found the food they were given largely poor: low quality, low quantity, cold. The method of distribution – in takeaway containers delivered to cell doors... is seen as one of the causes of the problem.
Complaints/Property
Both the prison and the Board continue to receive large numbers of complaints about property, with losses occurring both within and from outside of the prison.
Complaints/Property
The prison complaints system itself has been the focus of management who have been aware of its considerable failings. Where and from whom the complaints come may be indicative of underlying issues (5.7.5). There have been intermittent improvements, but a complete overhaul (which is envisaged) is probably the only answer (5.7.1).
Staffing
Repeated
The implementation of the key worker scheme has again been patchy owing to a shortage of available staff. This has meant that a scheme designed to improve safety by engaging with prisoners has never really been functioning as originally anticipated (5.3.5).
Equality/Diversity
the absence of any psychology interventions for a significant part of the year, and the failure to address properly the needs of wheelchair users and other disabled prisoners (6.3.10).
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Younger prisoners are poorly catered for, although the Board acknowledges that some new initiatives are being introduced (4.4.4).
Healthcare
Repeated
There is an ongoing issue, noted last year, with cancellations of hospital appointments caused by a shortage of escorting officers. The prison is nominally meeting its required number of escorts but this is clearly insufficient; and if there are emergencies (as there are) those officers are deployed to the emergency. The data shows that between a third and a quarter of appointments are cancelled (6.2.2)
Mental Health
Referrals to the mental health team have remained high throughout 2021 (6.3.3). This, combined with staff shortages, has meant that the target of seeing referrals within five working days has not been met and there is currently a four-week wait.
Mental Health
There remains an unacceptably long delay in the transfer of mentally ill patients to appropriate external hospital facilities.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
It is of increasing concern to the Board that we are not able to obtain any statistics which reliably show how much time prisoners are spending outside of their cells, or in exercise (6.5).
Education/Purposeful Activity
Repeated
during the whole of this reporting year the library has remain closed. Prisoners have been able to ask for books to be delivered to the wings – but that cannot replace the experience of being in a library nor the access to computers for research that it provides. Education has similarly been seriously depleted during this year. There has been no face-to-face teaching for the year – in-cell packs being the sole source of education.
Resettlement/Release
towards the end of the reporting year Citizens Advice lost the funding to enable them to remain in the prison. The prison was able to respond by giving some financial assistance, but their presence is still reduced to one day per week, whilst demand for their help remains high.
Equality/Diversity
The E wing focus group identified a lack of BAME management staff on their wing as a major concern. Prisoners felt the presence of such leadership was essential for equality and to provide a route of communication and understanding. The same focus group was also concerned that there were not enough Black workers in the FNC, gym or reception areas of the prison. Black prisoners witnessed their White counterparts being placed in ‘better roles’ than their own.
Equality/Diversity
Repeated
The Board remains concerned that the DIRF system is ineffective and does not fully reflect prisoners’ concerns. Some DIRF concerns may, however, be being expressed on Comp 1 forms in the main prison complaint system.
Board Commentary
Staffing
Staff shortages persist across the prison, impacting regime delivery and healthcare, with over 50% of the workforce potentially unavailable at any given time due to training, sickness, or other duties. One-third of Band 3 prison officers have never experienced a full regime due to prolonged restrictions. The key worker scheme remains patchy and under-resourced, preventing it from functioning as intended to improve safety and engagement. Healthcare also struggles with 1.2 FTE GP vacancies and several nursing vacancies.
Healthcare
Healthcare provision, managed by Practice Plus Group, effectively managed Covid-19 outbreaks with no serious illnesses. However, staff shortages are a significant concern, impacting primary care and mental health services, leading to a four-week wait for non-urgent mental health referrals. The Board is deeply concerned by the high number of healthcare complaints and the frequent cancellation of hospital appointments due to a lack of escorting officers, alongside unacceptable delays in transferring mentally ill patients to external facilities.
Regime & Daily Life
The prison experienced a very slow return to a normal regime throughout the reporting year, causing significant anxiety among prisoners. Inconsistent and restricted regimes, often limiting time out of cell to as little as half an hour a day for new arrivals, contributed to heightened tensions and stress. Unemployed prisoners can still be locked up for 23 hours a day, which the Board believes is detrimental to mental health. Both the library and face-to-face education remained closed or severely depleted for the entire year.
Applications to the IMB
Prisoners can apply to their IMB about any aspect of their treatment. This table shows application counts by category.
| Category | Current | Previous | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accommodation (including transfers) | 45 | 38 | |
| Disciplinary/Adjudication | 25 | 18 | |
| Discrimination | 0 | 0 | |
| Drugs | 1 | 2 | |
| Equality (other than discrimination) | 0 | 0 | |
| Family | 17 | 12 | |
| Food | 26 | 13 | |
| Healthcare | 104 | 55 | |
| Legal | 31 | 18 | |
| Mental Health | 10 | 4 | |
| Other | 62 | 22 | |
| Poverty/Debt | 13 | 4 | |
| Property | 59 | 24 | |
| Segregation | 2 | 2 | — |
| Staff | 12 | 10 | |
| Time out of cell/Regime | 25 | 16 | |
| Total | 435 | 238 | |
| Work/Education/Vocational training | 3 | 0 |
Recommendations (7)
Ministry of Justice: 2
HMPPS: 2
Governor / Director: 3
1 repeated
Recommendation 1
Citizens Advice are a vital service within the prison, but they are only able to attend one day a week because of financial constraints. Can the Minister give consideration to requesting extra funds to enable them to operate more frequently?
Ministry of Justice
Resettlement
Recommendation 1
During our reporting year, the property framework promised for early 2022 had not been published. When can we expect proper regard to be given to prisoners’ property, and a bar coding system to be introduced to assist in management of this perennial issue?
HMPPS
Complaints
Recommendation 1
Can the Governor please address the lack of data and monitoring in relation to how much time individual prisoners are spending out of cell on a particular day (6.5.2), so that the HMPPS benchmark might be achieved?
Governor / Director
Regime
Recommendation 2
We urge the Minister to heed the CPT’s request for rapid transfer of people with serious mental illness to appropriate mental health settings, and to put in place sufficient funds to enable this to happen.
Ministry of Justice
Mental Health
Recommendation 2
When can we expect more stringent guidance on cell clearance?
HMPPS
Estate
Recommendation 2
Repeated
Given the evidence seems to suggest that a disproportionate number of UoF incidents involve Black prisoners, what action, outside of the collection of data, is being taken to address this?
Governor / Director
Equality
Recommendation 3
Whilst acknowledging that no serveries may have resulted in a lowering of violent incidents, can consideration be given to trialling a return to serveries (perhaps on one wing) and an assessment made of any resulting violent incidents and/or any improvement in the level of satisfaction with the food ?
Governor / Director
Food
Other IMB Reports for Wormwood Scrubs
HMIP Inspections
Recent inspections by HM Inspectorate of Prisons for this establishment.
16 Mar 2026
IRP
9 Jun 2025
Unannounced
7 Jun 2021
Unannounced
16 Sep 2019
Announced
PPO Fatal Incidents
Prisons and Probation Ombudsman fatal incident investigations for this establishment.
Prevention of Future Deaths Reports
Coroner PFD reports issued to this establishment.