Three watchdog bodies which scrutinise conditions in prisons and court custody cells are to be merged into one, as part of a Government cost-cutting drive.
The move will see HM Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP), the Independent Monitoring Boards (IMBs) and the Lay Observers brought together into a single organisation responsible for holding prison governors and ministers to account.
No public announcement has been made, but people in the organisations affected were told this week. Chairs of IMBs received a letter from Prisons Minister Lord Timpson informing them of the decision and saying that it followed a review within the Ministry of Justice.
The driving force behind the merger is understood to be the Cabinet Office, which is examining ‘arms-length bodies’ across Whitehall to see whether savings can be made by closing or combining them.
No details have yet been decided of what shape the new merged watchdog will take, or the extent to which it will continue to deploy IMB-style volunteers alongside the professional inspectors who visit prisons on behalf of HMIP. Whatever the ultimate structure, IMBs – whose origins trace back to the Victorian era – will no longer be ‘independent’ of the wider inspectorate.
Any change will require legislation, which the Government has not yet timetabled. A Ministry of Justice source told Inside Time that the merger will happen “when legislative time allows”, and insisted that it would not reduce the level of scrutiny. The source added: “The Department will now be working through the detail of what a future model will look like and how it will work, in consultation with the bodies themselves.”
It is not clear whether the head of the merged body will retain the title of Chief Inspector of Prisons. The present Chief Inspector, Charlie Taylor, has been in post since 2020 and is likely to conclude his term in office before the reforms take effect. In recent decades, holders of the office including General Sir David Ramsbotham and Judge Stephen Tumim have established strong reputations for independence.
By contrast, IMBs have faced recent difficulties. Every prison in England and Wales has an IMB, made up of volunteer members of the public who have full access to enter the buildings and speak with prisoners and staff. They monitor conditions and publish their findings in annual reports. The system dates back to the 1898 Prison Act, which established Boards of Visitors. They were renamed IMBs in 2003.
Recently, IMBs have struggled to recruit enough volunteers, with 700 current vacancies across the country. At HMP Manchester, a lack of board members meant that no annual report was published for the past three years.
When Elisabeth Davies became National Chair of the IMBs in 2023 she sought to reduce the workload on members by limiting the number of times they visited prisons and stopping them from pursuing individual prisoners’ complaints. However, her plans met with fierce opposition from some IMB chairs. She resigned last December, citing personal reasons – leaving the organisation divided.
The Lay Observers work in a similar way to IMBs, but inspecting court custody cells.
Inside Time understands that one option considered by the MoJ review was to merge HMIP with the office of the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, but this was resisted by HMIP and was eventually rejected.
Pat McFadden, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said when he launched the Cabinet Office review of arms-length bodies in April 2025 that it aimed to “drive out waste and inefficiency across Whitehall, reducing duplication and bureaucracy – saving the taxpayer money and cutting the cost of ‘doing government’”.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson told Inside Time: “Scrutiny bodies play a vital role in raising standards across our prisons and ensuring robust accountability. These changes will strengthen the consistency and effectiveness of this oversight, as the Government presses ahead with delivering punishment that cuts crime and keeps the public safe.”
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