Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre

(asked on 19th July 2021) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many meetings (a) he has and (b) Ministers of his Department have had with the operator of Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre since inspectors issued an Urgent Notification in respect of that Centre in December 2020.


Answered by
Alex Chalk Portrait
Alex Chalk
Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
This question was answered on 27th July 2021

Following the invoking of the Urgent Notification protocol at Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre (STC) last December, Ministers called an urgent meeting with senior representatives from the provider MTC. HMPPS officials were then instructed to deploy to Rainsbrook to scrutinise actions taken by MTC in response to the Urgent Notification. Subsequent meetings were conducted between officials, with regard to monitoring the Urgent Notification action plan. As this is a contracted service the YCS/HMPPS contract management and commercial teams have met internally and with MTC on a regular basis.

We ordered the provider to take the immediate action necessary to address the unacceptable failings at Rainsbrook, including a focus on ensuring all children in the Reverse Cohorting Unit had a suitable amount of time out of their room. Whilst inspectors acknowledged that this issue had been addressed, and that the Youth Custody Service had strengthened its oversight of the STC, a second Urgent Notification was invoked on 18 June following a full inspection of the centre with reference to separate serious concerns.

We have now transferred all children from Rainsbrook to alternative appropriate accommodation. Separately, we are also considering the future of the centre, with a further announcement to be made on this position in due course following conclusion of the current commercial matters.

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