Expectations for the UK Armed Forces Service Custody Facilities (PDF) (271 kB)

Expectations for the UK Armed Forces Service Custody Facilities (Word) (228 kB)

Since 2004, HM Inspectorate of Prisons, by invitation and under an agreed protocol with the Provost Marshal (Army), has conducted regular independent inspection of the Military Corrective Training Centre (MCTC), the Ministry of Defence’s single central custodial facility. From 2013, that invitation was extended to include the independent inspection of licensed Service Custody Facilities (SCFs) throughout the United Kingdom. SCFs are the Armed Forces’ short-term custodial facilities where service men, women and children can be held pending charge or conviction for a service or criminal offence. (We define children as those under 18, in line with the Children Act 1989.) SCFs may also hold those convicted of a crime or service offence for up to 14 days.

Our Expectations for SCFs – the criteria we use to inspect outcomes for detainees in service custody and their transfer to and from those facilities – were previously incorporated into a set of Expectations that covered both the MCTC and SCFs. This is the first separate edition of what we are now calling Expectations for UK Armed Forces Service Custody Facilities. This edition builds on our Expectations for police custody suites while recognising the distinct experience of detainees held in SCFs. The Expectations are independent and informed by relevant international and regional human rights standards, as well as relevant legislation and guidelines. They also draw on the cumulative learning of our SCF inspections to date and the results of a consultation with stakeholders.

The Expectations will be used to assess the treatment and conditions of those detained in SCFs. They are grouped into five inspection areas:

• Leadership and accountability
• Transfer to the Service Custody Facility
• In the custody facility: booking in, individual needs and legal rights
• In the custody accommodation, safeguarding and health care
• Release and transfer from the Service Custody Facility

Each section begins with an overall expected outcome. Numbered expectations set out the outcome we expect UK Armed Forces’ to achieve and a list of indicators suggest evidence that may demonstrate whether the outcomes have been met. It is not essential to meet each indicator; equally the list is not exhaustive and does not exclude other means of achieving the outcome.

I hope that these latest Expectations will support Service Custody Facilities in providing good outcomes for detainees.

Charlie Taylor

HM Chief Inspector of Prisons

July 2021