Home > Publications > Selected cases — Parliamentary > Selected Cases and Summaries of Completed Investigations - October 2000 to March 2001 - Case No. C.1552/00, C.1818/00 and C.414/01
Selected Cases and Summaries of Completed Investigations - October 2000 to March 2001
Volume 4 - 2nd REPORT - SESSION 2001-2002
Chapter 2
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Case No: C.1552/00
Immigration Service: failure properly to investigate two incidents at a train station
Mr T complained that the Immigration Service failed to investigate properly his complaint about the treatment of Ms S who they had refused entry to the UK in August 1999 and admitted to the UK on 3 September.
The Ombudsman did not find maladministration in the discretionary decision by the Immigration Service not to interview Ms S and her companions as part of their investigation. He also did not uphold Mr T’s complaint about the conduct of the investigation.
He did, however, find that the Immigration Service had been inflexible in their decision not to delay by an hour Ms S’s departure from the UK on 9 August to enable Mr T to accompany her.
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Case No: C.1818/00
Prison Service: adequacy of arrangements for the care of a potentially vulnerable young inmate
Mrs X complained, through a solicitor, that the Prison Service had failed to provide adequate care to her son, who died in custody on the night of 7-8 October 1998. The Ombudsman found that, at the time of Mr X’s admission, the prison’s ability to deal effectively with potentially vulnerable young inmates had been seriously weakened by deficiencies in accommodation and the reception process; the prison’s anti-bullying policy was not solving a serious problem of bullying and self-harming behaviour on the young offenders’ wing; and there was a lack of psychiatric and counselling support in the prison. Against that deeply unsatisfactory background, justifiable steps had been taken to deal with persistent self-harming behaviour by Mr X, although more rigorous application of the Prison Service’s procedure for caring for the suicidal ought to have achieved swifter progress. Some improvement had followed; regrettably that had not removed Mr X’s problems or prevented his death. The Director General of the Prison Service apologised to Mrs X for the shortcomings identified. He assured the Ombudsman that action would be taken to implement recent recommendations by the Chief Inspector of Prisons regarding the necessary improvements to the regime at the prison.
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Case No: C.414/01
Prison Service: provision of care and medication to a potentially vulnerable inmate
Ms A complained, through a solicitor, that the Prison Service had provided insufficient care to her nephew, Mr A, who committed suicide in prison on 26 May 1999. The Ombudsman found that there had been significant shortcomings by the Prison Service, in the form of insufficient gathering and assimilation of information about Mr A’s offences and medical needs on his admission to the prison on 22 May; error and omission in the provision of medication that had previously been prescribed by his general practitioner; inadequate supervision of continuing treatment; and an in-built lack of sensitivity when conveying to him potentially distressing news about the postponement of the hearing of a bail application. Some mitigation had been present in the form of a significant degree of informal support from the Prisoners Active Listening Service, but that had not been enough to prevent Mr A’s death. The Director General of the Prison Service described a number of pertinent improvements that had since been made to procedures at the prison for obtaining and conveying information, and in the provision of health care, and gave assurances of continuing work locally and nationally to improve the Prison Service’s care of potentially vulnerable inmates.
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