Potentially damaging reports into the running of two immigration detention centres by private contractors must be released by the Home Office within weeks, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has said.

The documents will give detailed breakdowns and insight into the running of Harmondsworth, Britain’s largest immigration detention centre, and Colnbrook, both near Heathrow in west London.

It is believed that this is the first time the reports, which are prepared for Home Office officials each month by the contractors that run Britain’s immigration detention facilities, will come to light.



The Home Office fought to prevent their release for more than 10 months after the research group Corporate Watch lodged a freedom of information request. Government officials argued that the documents were confidential and would harm the commercial interests of the contractors Serco and GEO Group if they became public knowledge.

The Home Office also said their release would make it more difficult to negotiate deals with contractors in future.

However, in a decision Corporate Watch described as landmark, the ICO said that, while it agreed that the commercial interests of the firms would be harmed, the public interest in transparency was more important, and gave the Home Office until 13 July to release the reports.

It said their release would cause no significant damage to the Home Office’s bargaining position with potential contractors, knocking down an exemption to the Freedom of Information Act often relied upon by government departments.

Phil Miller, a researcher for Corporate Watch, said the ICO’s decision sent “a strong signal to government to be far more transparent on outsourced contracts. Home Office bureaucrats should not shield private security companies from public scrutiny”.

In a document detailing the reasons for its ruling, the ICO said the operation of immigration removal centres (IRCs) in general is an issue that has been the subject of scrutiny and concern.

It said it had taken into account media coverage suggesting that the operation of the centres “has been a problematic area generally” and that the HM chief inspector of prisons’ reports were “to varying degrees of severity, critical” of the running of Harmondsworth and Colnbrook.

The document added: “The introduction to the report on Harmondsworth refers to ‘inadequate focus on the needs of the most vulnerable detainees’, ‘shocking cases where a sense of humanity was lost’ and to the centre as ‘dirty and bleak’ and ‘in a state of drift’.” It noted that the Colnbrook report was also negative, although to a lesser degree.

The ICO said: “Given this publicly available criticism of the operation of these centres, the commissioner’s view is that there is in general a very strong public interest in other information about their operation.”

It said that because the two self-audits now due to be released post-date the HMIP reports, “there is a strong public interest in favour of disclosure in order to reveal whether, according to the contractors’ own accounts, the operations of these IRCs improved”.

The commissioner added: “It is also highly relevant that the contractors are paid with public money to operate these IRCs. The disclosure of the self-audit reports would add to public knowledge on the extent to which a value-for-money service is being provided to the taxpayer, which is also in the public interest. Furthermore, all of the factors in favour of disclosure are made more acute by the vulnerable nature of people held within IRCs.”

The number of reports of serious self-harm at Harmondsworth have increased almost fourfold since 2012, according to figures obtained by Channel 4 News. There were at least 16 cases in 2012 and at least 62 incidents in 2014.

Across all UK immigration detention centres, it reported that the number of incidents of self-harm requiring medical attention more than doubled between 2012 and 2014 from 150 to at least 306.

The two reports that the Home Office has been ordered to publish date from May 2014, when more than 100 detainees reportedly went on hunger strike at Harmondsworth. At that time, it was being run by the American company GEO Group. Responsibility for the operation of both Harmondsworth and Colnbrook has subsequently passed to Mitie.

The government can appeal, but has not confirmed whether it will do so. A Home Office spokesman said: “We have noted the Information Commissioner’s decision and are considering whether or not to appeal. It would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.” Serco declined to comment, saying it was a matter for the Home Office. GEO Group has not responded to a request for comment.

