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Court custody suite operations

Court based cellular vehicles (Back to top)

In exceptional circumstances a request maybe raised by PECS, to permanently base a PECS supplier vehicle overnight at a court location.

Where such circumstance occurs, the reason for doing so will be based on the inability of the supplier to provide an effective service to the court due to the supplier vehicle base located at a significant distance from the court facility.

Where a vehicle may be located overnight at a court facility, it remains the responsibility of the PECS supplier to maintain the integrity of the vehicles’ security systems and roadworthiness to ensure this is not compromised.

When a formal request is submitted, the final agreement to locate the suppliers vehicle will be agreed with HMCTS.

The PECS supplier will not locate a vehicle at a court location without agreement from HMCTS.

Court to prison alignments (Back to top)

Once remanded into custody by the courts, prisoners will be allocated to a designated local prison (calendar prison) from the respective court.

Court Committal Directions, owned and published by HMPPS’ Population Management Unit (PMU), provide these allocation pathways.

Should any prison reach their capacity and be unable to accept prisoners from their designated court, Population Management Unit will provide PECS suppliers with authority to redirect prisoners to alternative prisons.

There may also be instances where prisoners may be located in a prison not aligned to their respective court for reasons of security or good order.

In instances where prisoners are located in a non-aligned prison, the OMU department in that aligned prison will be responsible for ensuring the prisoner is produced to court.

Where possible, the prison holding that individual should arrange through PMU an inter-prison transfer, to ensure the prisoner can be discharged to court from the aligned prison.

This will reduce any impact on court proceedings due to late arrival and protect PECS supplier resource accordingly which reduces the impact on other movements.

HMIP inspection (Back to top)

The inspection of court custody facilities will be carried out by inspectors from HMI Prisons and, occasionally, observers from other organisations concerned with the work of the NPM. Objectives of the inspection programme:

  • The programme of inspection is designed to examine the treatment and conditions under which people are detained in court custody and during escort.
  • In addition, the programme will provide an operational and strategic overview of the effectiveness of court custody arrangements. This includes partnerships with other agencies involved in working with people who are, or have recently been, in court custody; and the work of Prisoner Escort and Custody (PECS) contractors when transferring detainees between police stations, courts and prisons.
  • These outcomes will be measured against agreed, published inspection criteria, known as Expectations.

The expectations are grouped together under five inspection areas:

  • Leadership and multi-agency relationships
  • Transfer to court custody
  • In the custody suite: reception processes, individual needs and legal rights
  • In the custody cell, safeguarding and health care
  • Release and transfer from court custody

To meet the requirement for regular inspection, while also being proportionate, the inspection programme will ensure that all courts and tribunals custody facilities are inspected at least once every eight years, although inspections may be more frequent.

The nature and timing of inspections will be determined by HMI Prisons, informed both by chronology and risk. Read the associated guidance and HMI Prisons Memorandum of Understanding with HM Courts and Tribunals

Ingress/egress at court (Back to top)

Some HMCTS sites may have 3rd party control over the egress/ingress of PECS supplier vehicles. There is an expectation that the entry of PECS vehicles is prioritised.

There will be a local protocol in place at each site where PECS suppliers will escalate any issues that may be impacting efficient movement of prisoners in/out of custody suites.

HMP Category A vehicles will be given priority over all movements, including PECS vehicles. Any issues that cannot be resolved at a local level may be escalated to the Regional Contract Delivery Manager.

Lay Observers (Back to top)

Find out more about the Lay Observers and their role

Prison capacity (Back to top)

Once remanded into custody by the courts, prisoners will be allocated to a designated local prison from the respective court.

Court Committal Directions owned and published by HMPPS’ Population Management Unit provide these allocation pathways.

Should any prison reach their capacity and be unable to accept prisoners from their designated court, Population Management Unit will provide PECS suppliers with authority to redirect prisoners to alternative prisons.

Additionally, where no reasonable redirection can be provided, prisoners may be located in police custody overnight until a prison space becomes available.

This may be due to an unreasonable journey or arrival time at the nearest prison with available space.

During periods of prolonged population pressure, which may be regional or national, operation safeguard may be implemented.

This ensures the availability of designated police cellular accommodation, ensuring prisoners remanded into custody may be located in a safe and secure environment until a prison space is available the next day.

Where HMPPS experiences a critical lack of capacity on a regional or national basis, it may be necessary to introduce “Operation Early Dawn”. 

In this scenario, the number of prisoners attending court from police custody will be evaluated in conjunction with projected available prison spaces. 

Following this evaluation, it may be necessary to hold a number of prisoners in police custody, to prevent breaching HMPPS capacity.

Priority will be given to those in police custody who have time sensitive requirements.

Release process (Back to top)

A Manager Release Authorisation form must be completed thoroughly and in full before any release.

No prisoner will be released until written confirmation is received, this may be via email and is provided by the prison or police station in which they were most recently held.

For authority to release delays over the contractual requirement to move a person out of the court custody suite consideration should be made to escort the prisoner to the local prison.

Under no circumstances should a prisoner be held awaiting a decision after the agreed court closure time.

Prisoners must be made aware of the reason for any delay where known.

The PECS suppliers shall engage with HMCTS to confirm the outcome of the specific case where they are unsure, as such the person will not be released until formal confirmation has been received.