MigrationWatchdog

Who checks the immigration system

Six independent bodies scrutinise different parts of it — the statistics regulator, the prisons inspectorate, the statutory monitoring boards, the ombudsman, coroners and select committees. This is what each has on the record.

Scrutiny is only worth anything if somebody answers it. Where the record shows whether a report was responded to, that is published here too.

7
select committee reports on asylum and immigration
reports published up to 2026-06-05 · source
2
of those whose response deadline has passed with none recorded
reports published up to 2026-06-05 · source
4
coroners' reports sent to the Home Office on the immigration system
reports published up to 2025-07-15 · source
4
ombudsman investigations into deaths in immigration detention
investigations published up to 2025-09-12 · source

Parliament: what committees concluded, and whether anyone answered

A select committee reports; the government is expected to respond, and the parliamentary record carries the deadline. Both are published, so both are here. A committee's conclusions are the committee's — this site republishes that a report exists and what state its response is in, not a verdict on either.

Select committee reports on asylum and immigration, with the state of the government response
ReportPublishedGovernment response
An analysis of the asylum systemPublic Accounts Committee · HC 89 (2026-27)2026-06-05None recorded · deadline was 2026-08-05
Asylum accommodationHome Affairs Committee · HC 1642 (2024-26)2026-01-22No deadline recorded
Asylum accommodationHome Affairs Committee · HC 580 (2024-26)2025-10-27Recorded, 2026-01-22
Asylum accommodation: Home Office acquisition of former HMP NortheyePublic Accounts Committee · HC 361 (2024-26)2025-02-05Recorded, 2025-05-06
Asylum Accommodation and UK-Rwanda partnershipPublic Accounts Committee · HC 639 (2023-24)2024-05-29Recorded, 2025-07-11
Legislative Scrutiny: Nationality and Borders BillHuman Rights (Joint Committee) · HC 885 (2021-22)2021-12-01None recorded · deadline was 2022-02-01
Immigration EnforcementPublic Accounts Committee · HC 407 (2019-21)2020-09-18Recorded, 2020-11-18
reports published up to 2026-06-05 · source
“None recorded” is the careful wording
It means no response is recorded against the report in the parliamentary record, which is not quite the same claim as the government not having responded. A response can be published late, linked later, or take the form of a letter. This site says what the record shows, and dates it, rather than the stronger thing it cannot check.

Coroners: formal reports to the Home Office

Where a coroner believes action should be taken to prevent future deaths, they must report to whoever could take it, under Schedule 5 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009. The recipient must respond within 56 days. Of 143 such reports naming the Home Office, 4 were sent to the department and concern the immigration system.

Prevention of Future Deaths reports sent to the Home Office concerning the immigration system
Report dateCoroner's areaSent toReport
25/10/2024West LondonHome Office · NHS England · MITIEread ↗
25/04/2024Manchester NorthNational Police Chiefs Council · Home Officeread ↗
19/12/2023Inner West LondonHome Office · Department of Health and Social Care · Department for Culture, Media and Sport · Ofcom · Google · Amazon · British Transport Police · The National Police Chiefs’ Councilread ↗
03/10/2023Inner South LondonHMP Belmarsh · Practice Plus Group · Home Office · HM Prison and Probation Service · Ministry of Justiceread ↗
reports published up to 2025-07-15 · source

The ombudsman: deaths investigated in the detention estate

The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman independently investigates deaths of people detained under immigration powers. Every immigration establishment in its own index is listed below, including those with no published investigation — an absence is a fact, not a gap.

Published ombudsman investigations by immigration establishment
EstablishmentPublished investigations
Brook House Immigration Removal Centre2
Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre1
Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre1
Derwentside Immigration Removal Centre0
Dungavel House Immigration Removal Centre0
Morton Hall Immigration Removal Centre0
The Verne Immigration Removal Centre0
Tinsley House Immigration Removal Centre0
Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre0

3 of 9 establishments have a published investigation; 6 have none. The most recent was published 12 September 2025 (Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre) — read it ↗.

investigations published up to 2025-09-12 · source
What the two sections above deliberately do not say

They publish that an independent body formally reported, to whom, about where, and when — and they link the report so it can be read in full. They do not publish the name of anyone who died, the circumstances, the medical cause or the inquest conclusion. All of that is in the linked documents, where it belongs, and none of it belongs in a table on this site.

The accountability fact is that the state was formally told something must change. A person who died is not an exhibit in that argument.

Inspection and monitoring

HM Inspectorate of Prisons inspects immigration detention; a statutory Independent Monitoring Board sits in every removal centre and short-term holding facility and reports annually, with the Home Office publishing a written response to each. The full lists are on the enforcement page; the most recent of each is below.

Latest inspection reports

published up to 2026-07-14 · source

Latest monitoring board documents

4 of the documents listed here are the department's own written response to a board's report. Scrutiny that is answered is the thing this page is measuring, and monitoring boards are the one part of the estate where the reply is published alongside the report.

published up to 2026-09-02 · source

The statistics regulator

The Office for Statistics Regulation assesses whether the department's figures meet the Code of Practice for Statistics — including, in 2026, finding that an unscheduled release of an internal asylum hotel figure breached it. Its correspondence is republished in full on the sources page.

published up to 2026-05-08 · source

Data as of

Cite this page

Who checks the UK immigration system. Migration Watchdog, data as of 2026-08-24.
https://migrationwatchdog.com/scrutiny
Underlying figures: UK official statistics, re-published under OGL v3.0 — every figure links to its source on the page.

Sources for this page