Outsourcing firm will not seek further deals to run immigration removal centres and says it will focus on prisons

Security firm G4S will end its involvement in the immigration and asylum sector, after it announced it would no longer run Brook House and Tinsley House immigration removal centres once the contract expires next year.

The private security contractor said it wanted to focus on running prisons, and will seek further contracts after Boris Johnson promised 10,000 new prison places.

Undercover footage from BBC’s Panorama at Brook House in 2017 showed officials mocking, abusing and assaulting detainees at the facility. A detainee was filmed being throttled by a member of G4S staff, and there were claims of systematic abuse.

However, a report on Tuesday by HM Inspectorate of Prisons said it had found no evidence of an abusive culture among the current staff at Brook House, following an assessment in 2016 which found it to be “reasonably good”.

In the 2019 report, HMIP said that incidents of self-harm had significantly increased and that 40% of detainees said they had felt suicidal at some point while in the centre.

It also found that detainees spent too much time locked in their cells, and some aspects of security were “unnecessarily stringent”. But the average length of detention had “markedly declined” since 2016.

Peter Clarke, HM chief inspector of prisons, said: “Brook House has faced some very serious problems over the past two years, with investigations and legal actions following the Panorama revelations.

“Nevertheless, it is to the credit of the leadership and staff that they have been determined to prevent any recurrence of poor behaviour or abuse, and to inject an appropriately respectful culture into the centre, supported by improved training, better supervision of staff, and positive relationships with the detainees.”

The Panorama documentary on Brook House in 2017 sparked a scandal and 15 of the 21 staff allegedly involved resigned or were sacked. For the first time ever, a judge ordered a public inquiry into conditions at an immigration removal centre to investigate claims of “systemic and institutional failures”. It is expected to start next year.

Between 2012 and 2018, G4S made a gross profit of £14.3m from running Brook House, and there were claims it had been inaccurately reporting its activities to generate profits of up to 20% of revenues. It has managed the facility, which holds up to 508 adult men, since it opened in 2009 under a Home Office contract.

The contract was due to end in 2018 but was temporarily extended until May 2020. It was reported that Serco was believed to be a front-runner to take over.

Tinsley House, which is also near Gatwick airport and is much smaller, has been comparatively scandal-free. However, an HMIP report last year said detainees claimed staff had threatened to have them transferred to the neighbouring facility as a punishment.

A large majority of the UK’s immigration removal centres are run by private companies, and the sector has expanded in recent years amid the effort to create a “hostile environment” for migrants.

In August, G4S – which refers to itself as the largest secure outsourcing company in the UK and Ireland – also stopped operating accommodation for asylum seekers in the Midlands, north-east England and Northern Ireland, after being overlooked in the tendering process.

It said in a statement: “G4S will not seek to renew the contract to run Gatwick’s immigration removal centres, Brook House and Tinsley House. This will allow us to give greater focus to our custody and rehabilitation business, where we operate four of the highest rated prisons in England and Wales.”