Free Hybrid Conference - Brook House Inquiry: What Lessons have been Learned?

The Brook House Inquiry report found evidence of 19 instances of inhumane or degrading treatment, widespread misuse of force and the power to segregate. It exposed dehumanising abuse of vulnerable people held in immigration detention by the Home Office and its contractors, as well as a failure of all oversight mechanisms. The report found ongoing systemic failure of detention safeguards, resulting in wholesale failure to protect detained people as intended. Vulnerable people were exposed to the risk of mistreatment and were subjected to actual harm in a toxic institutional culture of racism, abuse and impunity.

Join the Brook House Inquiry legal teams, Core Participants and experts who gave vital evidence to the Inquiry to discuss the final report of the Brook House Inquiry; its findings and its 33 recommendations. The panels will focus on how they are relevant and can be utilised in current detention claims, challenges to the expanded powers to detain in the Illegal Migration Act 2023, and to press for fundamental change yet to be implemented in the detention system.   

Programme

 

1.30pm - 1.45pm: Registration
 

1.45pm - 2.00pm: Welcome & Introduction - Stephanie Harrison KC, Joint Head of Garden Court Chambers
 

2.00pm - 2.50pm: Panel 1 - Article 3: Mistreatment in the Detention Context
Chair: Emma Ginn, Medical Justice

• Systems Duty: Home Office & G4S Responsibility - Alex Goodman KC, Landmark Chambers

• Mistreatment - Alex Schymyck, Garden Court Chambers

• Medical Conditions - Gordon Lee, Garden Court Chambers

2.50pm - 3.05pm: Q&A

3.05pm - 3.30pm: Tea/Coffee Break
 

3.30pm - 4.20pm: Panel 2 - Detention Safeguards: Judicial Review, Civil Actions & Complaints

Chair: Hamish Arnott, Bhatt Murphy

• Adults at Risk, Rules 34/35 - Shu Shin Luh, Doughty Street

• Failure of Health Care - Dr Rachel Bingham, Medical Justice 

• Misuse of the Power to Segregate - Lewis Kett, Duncan Lewis

4.20pm-4.35pm – Q&A

4.35pm - 5pm - Break
 

5pm - 5.50pm: Panel 3 - Misuse of Force and Segregation: Civil Actions & Judicial Review
Chair: Mark Hylands, Deighton Pierce Glynn

• Use of Force: Necessary & Proportionate? - Una Morris, Garden Court Chambers

• Use of Force: Mental Illness - Dr Brodie Paterson, Honorary Senior Lecturer Queen Mary's University

• Complaints & Article 2/3 Investigations - Nick Armstrong KC, Matrix Chambers

5.50pm- 6.05pm: Q&A
 

6.05pm-6.30pm: Institutional Culture & Racism - What's Changed?

Professor Mary Bosworth (Centre for Criminology , Oxford University) in conversation with Stephanie Harrison KC, Joint Head of Garden Court Chambers
 

6.30-6.45: Closing - Excerpts from evidence and testimony of Core Participants
 

6.45pm-9pm – Drinks Reception

 

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