Prison
Cat B
Key Concerns Identified
Positive Findings
Liverpool
IMB Annual Report 2024 · Published 28 July 2025
HMP Liverpool, a Category B reception prison, continued to improve in some areas under new leadership despite persistent staffing challenges. Concerns escalated regarding prisoner safety, including increased self-harm, violence, and use of force, alongside significant delays in mental health transfers and regime delivery. The prison also struggles with the entry of illicit items and maintenance issues with its Victorian infrastructure.
Positive Findings
The Board notes the continued process of change and improvement under the new Governor, with positive progress in many areas. Relationships between staff and prisoners are generally good, with examples of cooperative activities and fundraising. The chaplaincy provides excellent multi-faith support, and prisoners give positive feedback. There was a reduction in internal outstanding complaints and a perceived improvement in property issues. Healthcare KPIs showed significant improvement in the latter half of the year, and prompt responses for mental health crises were observed. Work to support neurodiverse prisoners and substance misuse services by CGL were also praised.
Key Concerns
Staffing
Repeated
The constant struggle to find staff resources to deliver the expected service, leading to frequent regime cancellations and poor delivery of key worker contact.
Safety
Increase in reported self-harm incidents, from 400 to 557 per year.
Safety
Increase in violence on both prisoners and staff, with peaks in July and August.
Safety
Increase in use of force (UoF) incidents from 334 in 2023 to 469 in 2024.
Safety
Use of body worn video cameras (BWVC) is still not comprehensive and the CCTV infrastructure is prone to failure, impacting monitoring of incidents.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
Failure to go beyond minimum regime and leaving prisoners locked in cells for prolonged periods has been too frequent an occurrence in 2024, with only 35% of meaningful activity sessions delivered.
Equality/Diversity
Repeated
There remains a lack of accessible cells (two) for prisoners with disabilities.
Mental Health
Repeated
Inhumane length of time prisoners with severe mental health issues are kept in the Care and Separation Unit (CSU) awaiting transfer to appropriate hospital beds.
Complaints/Property
Repeated
Outstanding prisoner complaints from other establishments remain a persistent concern to the Board, causing frustration and unresolved issues.
Other
Repeated
Prisoners’ property going missing during transfer between establishments and within the establishment is a frequent cause of frustration, despite updated policies.
Regime/Time Out of Cell
The prison failed to achieve targets for key worker sessions, even the reduced target set for ‘amber red’ status.
Education/Purposeful Activity
Repeated
Delays in systems to allocate prisoners to work or education, and failure to achieve targets for education and vocational training provision.
Resettlement/Release
The number of unemployed prisoners climbed to 35% by December, and 18% of released prisoners still have no fixed abode on the first night.
Substance Misuse
Repeated
Illicit items (drugs, mobile phones and weapons) continue to be found in significant quantities, indicating a worsening problem and persistent routes of contraband into the prison.
Estate/Conditions
Refurbishment of G wing and new workshops were abandoned due to the collapse of the main contractor, leading to 115 cells and 230 bedspaces being unavailable and an uncertain completion timescale.
Estate/Conditions
Slow response times from the maintenance contractor and frequent breakdowns of electro-mechanical services and IT infrastructure, impacting security, safety, and decency of accommodation.
Board Commentary
Staffing
Staffing resources remain the overriding issue, leading to a constant struggle to deliver expected services. High staff sickness rates and diversions for escorts frequently impact daily operations and result in regime cancellations. This led to significant lack of regime delivery and very poor key worker contact throughout 2024. The Board highlights that staff absence is still an issue, questioning the effectiveness of current measures.
Healthcare
Healthcare remains a considerable concern, with prisoners expressing dissatisfaction regarding GP waiting times, medication changes, and external hospital appointment delays. The contract only funds two escorted hospital trips daily, leading to missed appointments. While a change in local management mid-year led to improvements and targets being met, major concerns persist about prisoners with serious mental illnesses being held in the CSU for inhumane lengths of time awaiting hospital transfer. Merseycare provides mental health services, typically supporting 70-90 prisoners with serious mental illness and another 260 on the integrated mental health team caseload.
Regime & Daily Life
The prison frequently failed to deliver more than a minimum regime, leaving prisoners locked in cells for prolonged periods. For example, in June, only essential labour was provided on 13.5 days. Only 35% of meaningful activity sessions were delivered, contributing to prisoner frustration. While daily access to exercise yards is generally maintained, gym access is often unavailable due to staff shortages and the poor regime offer. Efforts to offer more activity opportunities often result in part-time work, reducing time out of cell.
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 | |
| Activity and education | 2 | 12 | |
| Adjudication and incentives | 12 | 16 | |
| Allegations against staff | 6 | 9 | |
| Catering | 3 | 5 | |
| Chaplaincy | 0 | 1 | |
| Discrimination | 0 | 0 | |
| Drugs and alcohol | 0 | 0 | |
| Foreign Nationals | 1 | 0 | |
| Healthcare | 66 | 97 | |
| Lifer and IPP issues | 1 | 1 | — |
| Property | 32 | 44 | |
| Security, intelligence and risk management | 14 | 12 | |
| Sentence management and release | 15 | 13 | |
| Staffing | 1 | 0 | |
| Total | 210 | 250 | |
| Visits | 10 | 12 | |
| Work and pay | 2 | 2 | — |
Recommendations (12)
Ministry of Justice: 1
HMPPS: 8
Governor / Director: 3
7 repeated
Recommendation 1
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
Despite assurances in response to concerns raised last year, the delay in relocating prisoners with severe mental health issues continues. When does the minister expect this to change?
Ministry of Justice
Mental Health
Response
The delay, as is often the case, was due to a lack of capacity in the system together with NHS England’s prioritisation processes… I invite the Board to read the press release of 6 November 2024 about Mental Health Act reforms (which can be found on the .gov website) where the Government and I have committed to introducing a new statutory time limit of 28 days for transfers from prison to mental health hospitals.
Recommendation 1
When does the prison service expect to complete both the refurbishment of G wing, which is currently not available for use and the new workshops, that were abandoned with the collapse of ISG, the construction contractor in the summer of 2024?
HMPPS
Estate
Recommendation 1
Does the Governor have any target date of being able to provide keyworker sessions as set out in the Manage Custodial Sentence Policy Framework (an average of 45 minutes per prisoner per week)?
Governor / Director
Regime
Recommendation 2
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
Staff absence is still an issue at HMP Liverpool, affecting daily staffing levels and resulting in frequent regime cancellations for prisoners. Does HMPPS accept that measures taken to date have been ineffective and that it needs a different approach?
HMPPS
Staffing
Response
The Ministry of Justice People Group undertook a deep dive into absences at HMP Liverpool in April 2024. There is a planned review and re-profile of the current shift pattern for operational grades due to commence as part of a potential operational shift to a core reception prison. Due to the length of time it takes to review, plan, and implement a re-profiling of the prison, it would provide greater operational stability to consider one re-profile combining the recommendations and re-role requirements
Recommendation 2
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
What local actions will the governor consider for improving staff attendance, which is seen as a root cause of the poorest service delivery areas?
Governor / Director
Staffing
Recommendation 3
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
The Prison Service is aware of the inhumane length of time some prisoners have been in the CSU at HMP Liverpool whilst waiting for transfer to an appropriate mental health establishment. In the absence of any change will the Prison Service seek to bring additional resources to the site?
HMPPS
Mental Health
Recommendation 3
The use of body worn video cameras is a potential benefit for staff and prisoners alike. Will the prison enforce the mandatory wearing of this equipment, as required by the National Policy Framework?
Governor / Director
Safety
Recommendation 4
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
Illicit items (drugs, mobile phones and weapons) continue to be found in significant quantities. This leads to significant disruption within the prison and potentially fails to keep the public safe. Will the Prison Service set a timescale for implementing any aspect of the following, as set out in its response to the 2023 annual report: ‘HMPPS are exploring options to mitigate this growing risk [drones], including technological deployments and resourcing to maximise their impact, and work closely across government to assess the effectiveness in a rapidly changing technological landscape’?
HMPPS
Substance Misuse
Response
Through collaborative working with police and the regional organised crime unit, several arrests and convictions have been made in relation to drone activity at the prison. Close collaborative working continues between the directorate, subject matter experts, including the key threat manager, SOC delivery (Serious Organised Crime) Operations and intelligence teams, along with the prison and law enforcement to continue to seek to punish perpetrators.
Recommendation 5
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
Prisoners are still not receiving responses to complaints from other establishments within the timeframes specified in Prison Service policies. Will the Prison Service reconsider its approach to policing the implementation of this policy? In addition, does the Prison Group Director (PGD) have an option of imposing financial sanctions when those prisons that fail to respond are privately run?
HMPPS
Complaints
Response
To avoid delays, it is essential that respective prisons agree at an early stage which of them is responsible for providing the substantive response. If agreement cannot be reached, the complaint should be referred to the relevant PGD as soon as possible. The responsibility for referring the complaint rests with the prison where the complaint was initially lodged. HMP Liverpool have put in place a process whereby any outstanding complaint responses from other establishments are escalated via the Deputy Governor at HMP Liverpool to the Deputy Governor of the relevant establishment.
Recommendation 6
Repeated
Prev. unaddressed
Prisoners’ property during transfers is still going missing and is not managed effectively by the Prison Service, despite the updated Prisoners’ Property Policy Framework. The Board has raised this issue with the Prison Service for several years through our annual reports. What action will the Prison Service take to eliminate prisoners’ property being lost or mislaid between transfers, as previous approaches have not eliminated the problem?
HMPPS
Other
Response
HMPPS notes the Board’s concerns about property when a prisoner transfers establishments. The introduction of the digitally recorded Prisoner Escort Record (dPER) included a property section that accurately records the number and type of sealed property transferred with the prisoner and an accurate record of property handover between different stakeholders. This is now embedded as business as usual.
Recommendation 7
Given the age and nature of HMP Liverpool, will the Prison Service improve the maintenance response times, both planned and delivered, to ensure the prison provides consistently decent and safe accommodation? In addressing this issue, will the service consider that employing a dedicated responsive maintenance manager could be self-financing by eliminating waste and over charging, and making prison operations more efficient?
HMPPS
Estate
Recommendation 8
Will the Prison Service invest in resetting the CCTV equipment to a usable monitoring performance standard and maintain it at this level?
HMPPS
Safety
Other IMB Reports for Liverpool
HMIP Inspections
Recent inspections by HM Inspectorate of Prisons for this establishment.
11 Aug 2025
Unannounced
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.