More than 60 prisons await vital improvements as government U-turns on fire safety

Dozens of prisons in England and Wales that have been waiting for vital fire safety improvements – including seven jails where there have been fatal fires – are identified today (Tuesday 24 March) in documents uncovered by the Howard League for Penal Reform.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has known for almost 20 years that tens of thousands of people in prison are forced to occupy cells that do not meet lawful fire safety standards. Faced with a capacity crisis so acute that more than half of prisons are overcrowded, the government has reneged on a commitment to make all cells fire-safe by the end of 2027 or take them out of use. No new deadline has been set.

The Howard League can reveal that, in the autumn of 2025, more than 60 prisons were waiting for work to improve fire safety. They included Stocken, Eastwood Park, Swaleside, Risley, Wealstun, Chelmsford and Holme House, all of which have seen fatal fires in the last 15 years.

More than 40 prisons were waiting for the installation of in-cell automatic fire detection (AFD) equipment, which alerts staff to fires immediately. They included Eastwood Park, where Clare Dupree was fatally injured in a fire in December 2022.

Last week, an inquest jury at Avon Coroner’s Court found that there had been “missed opportunities” to prevent Clare’s death, and that a “lack of automatic in-cell fire detection caused a delay in detecting the fire”. More than three years on from the tragedy, AFD is yet to be installed in Clare’s cell.

The documents were made available to the Howard League in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. The lists were alphabetised by the MoJ, making it impossible to tell which prisons require action most urgently. The Howard League has requested updated lists, including details of how many cells in each prison are affected and when works will start and how long they will last, but the MoJ has so far refused to provide them. A full list of affected prisons can be found in the Notes to Editors at the foot of this press release.

The Howard League has threatened the government with legal action if it does not remedy the situation. In October 2025, the charity sent pre-action letters to Eastwood Park, Norwich, Swaleside, Wandsworth and Wetherby prisons. Despite them all having serious fire safety risks, works have yet to start in four of the five prisons, including at Swaleside and Eastwood Park where there were fatal fires in 2019 and 2022.

It was only after the threat of litigation from the Howard League that the government notified its independent fire safety regulator, the Crown Premises Fire Safety Inspectorate (CPFSI), that it no longer intended to take non-compliant cells out of use by the end of 2027.

Andrea Coomber KC (Hon.), Chief Executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: “From chronic overcrowding and rising violence to record levels of self-harm and people being released by mistake, chaos in the prison system is rarely out of the headlines. Fire safety has largely remained under the radar until now. But the long-running detention of tens of thousands of people in fire-risk cells, and the government’s U-turn on a deadline to solve this, amount to a national scandal.

“After almost two decades of inaction by the Ministry of Justice, worried families are having to listen to yet more broken promises. We know that at least 11 people have died in cell fires since the government accepted its responsibility to install automatic fire detection equipment. How many more lives will be lost?”

The Howard League also submitted requests under the Freedom of Information Act to the CPFSI, asking for disclosure of all informal, formal and statutory notices served by it in respect of prisons in England and Wales. The CPFSI provided notices covering a two-year period, from November 2023 to October 2025.

Sixteen prisons – Belmarsh, Chelmsford, Dovegate, Durham, Eastwood Park, Elmley, Holme House, Leyhill, Lowdham Grange, Maidstone, Norwich, Swaleside, Wakefield, Wandsworth, Wetherby and Wormwood Scrubs – all received Crown Enforcement Notices in the two-year period. A Crown Enforcement Notice is sent when the CPFSI has identified that there has been a significant failure by a Crown body – such as a prison governor, the MoJ, or HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) – to comply with fire safety legislation. The notice outlines the issues, and requests that action is taken to ensure compliance.

Six prisons – Eastwood Park, Holme House, Manchester, Norwich, Swaleside and Wetherby – received ‘Step Away’ notices in the two-year period. A ‘Step Away’ notice is issued by the CPFSI when a Crown Enforcement Notice has not been complied with and the CPFSI would pursue a criminal prosecution if Crown immunity did not apply.

In addition to the notices above, the CPFSI informed the Howard League that it could not provide details of any notices provided in relation to Oakwood prison due to an ongoing investigation, which may lead to criminal proceedings. It is understood that a person died in a cell fire at Oakwood, which is a private prison run by G4S, at some time between 2019 and 2023.

Notes to editors

1. The Howard League for Penal Reform is the oldest penal reform charity in the world. It is a national charity working for less crime, safer communities and fewer people in prison.
2. On 21 July 2025, the then Chief Executive of HMPPS wrote to the Public Accounts Committee, stating that “21,000 currently occupied prison places do not meet the current fire safety standards”.
3. On 14 January 2026, in response to a written parliamentary question from Munira Wilson MP, the government revealed that there were 2,546 cell fires in prisons in England and Wales in 2025.
4. In its latest annual report, the CPFSI noted that “[t]he risk of fire-related injuries increases in prisons, as the occupant cannot self-evacuate”. The MoJ conducted a study in 2007, which found that it is expected that a prisoner in a cell will die within eight minutes of ignition of an in-cell fire. As noted by the coroner in her Prevention of Future Deaths report in respect of the death of Christian Hinkley (see note 8), “there is no reasonable prospect of local Fire & Rescue Service firefighters attending the cell with breathing apparatus and firefighting equipment within that timescale.” The CPFSI annual report can be found here.
5. Where prison cells do not have automatic fire detection (AFD) installed, HMPPS has tried to install temporary domestic smoke detectors (DSDs) outside of cells. The government has told the Howard League that “HMPPS fully acknowledges that the use of DSDs in this way is a less effective way of minimising fire risks than in-cell AFD. In particular, (i) a DSD situated outside a cell door will take longer to detect a fire inside a cell than a detector situated inside the cell, and (ii) a standalone DSD, if activated, will not report an alarm signal to a central console (so a swift response to the fire depends on the alarm being heard). There is no intention that the use of DSDs should be a permanent solution.”
6. Richard Hunt died from smoke inhalation after a fire in his cell in Stocken prison in July 2025. An inquest is yet to take place, but a coroner’s prevention of future deaths report was sent to the prison’s governor, HMPPS and the CPFSI in October 2025, which expressed concerns that staff had ‘deliberately tamper[ed]’ with fire alarm control panels.
7. Clare Dupree died in hospital, two days after a fire in her cell in Eastwood Park prison in December 2022. Her inquest, which concluded last week, was covered by the Guardian.
8. Christian Hinkley died from smoke inhalation after a fire in Swaleside prison in July 2019. A coroner’s prevention of future deaths report was sent to the then Prisons Minister, Victoria Atkins MP.
9. Kevin Delahunty died in hospital in March 2018, four days after suffering third-degree burns in a fire in Risley prison. His death was reported by BBC News.
10. Robert Majchrzak died from smoke inhalation in Wealstun prison in August 2013. His death was reported by the Guardian. A report of the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman’s investigation into his death can be found here.
11. A man died in hospital in August 2013 as a result of burns he suffered in a fire in his cell in Chelmsford prison 25 days before. A report of the Prisons and Probation Ombudman’s investigation into his death can be found here.
12. A man died from smoke inhalation after a fire in Holme House prison in November 2011. A report of the Prisons and Probation Ombudman’s investigation into his death can be found here.
13. A man died following a cell fire at Oakwood prison between August 2020 and August 2023. A report of the Prisons and Probation Ombudman’s investigation into the death of Carl Bennett at Oakwood prison in August 2023 refers to the death of another person in the preceding three years following a cell fire at the prison.
14. This table lists prisons that were on HMPPS’ fire safety improvement programme list on 27 October 2025, and/or were awaiting the installation of in-cell automatic fire detection on 30 September 2025, and/or received a Crown Enforcement or Step Away notice from the CPFSI during the period from November 2023 to October 2025.

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Rob Preece
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