Sarah Simcock acts as first junior counsel to the Brook House Inquiry – public hearings due to commence 23 November 2021
4th November 2021
The Brook House Inquiry is a statutory public inquiry set up to investigate mistreatment of individuals who were detained at Brook House Immigration Removal Centre (IRC) between 1 April 2017 and 31 August 2017, as shown in the BBC Panorama programme “Under Cover: Britain’s Immigration Secrets” aired on 4 September 2017. The purpose of the Inquiry is to understand what happened at Brook House IRC identifying responsibility for any mistreatment and to identify learning and to make recommendations that would help to prevent a recurrence of such events. For the purposes of the Inquiry, ‘mistreatment’ is interpreted to mean treatment contrary to Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, namely torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The Inquiry will examine a range of issues including whether methods, policies, practices and management arrangements (both of the Home Office and its contractors) caused or contributed to any identified mistreatment; whether any changes to these would help to prevent a recurrence of any identified mistreatment; whether any clinical care issues caused or contributed to any identified mistreatment; whether any changes to clinical care would help to prevent a recurrence of any identified mistreatment and the adequacy of the complaints and monitoring mechanisms provided by Home Office Immigration Enforcement and external bodies (including the centre’s independent monitoring board and statutory role of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons) in respect of any identified mistreatment.
Sarah was appointed first junior counsel to the Inquiry in April 2021.
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