Nacro responds to today’s (09.07.2025) Annual Report about HMP Lancaster Farms from the Independent Monitoring Board. The Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) for HMP Lancaster Farms has published its 2024-25 annual report which highlights the increasing number of complaints the Board received about healthcare provision. The number of health care complaints from prisoners to the IMB increased from 28 in 2023-24 to 81 in 2024-25.
Campbell Robb, Chief Executive of Nacro, said:
“HMP Lancaster Farms is sadly just one example of poor healthcare in prisons. We are increasingly hearing about people in prison not being able to get the healthcare they need.
“Our recent survey of prison leavers found many stories of people not getting the medical help they need, being left with untreated injuries, having medication withdrawn, being driven to swapping or buying medication off other prisoners and even performing dentistry on themselves.”
“We must focus on creating an environment in which people have the best chance to turn their lives around on release, supporting good health is central to that. Only with a focus on rehabilitation will it be possible to see the positive change so desperately needed within our prisons.”
Notes to Editors
- The Nacro survey: 101 people completed the survey between May and October 2024.
- Independent Monitoring Board Annual Report at HMP Lancaster Farms.
Learn more about our work
We operate in more than 40 prisons and provide services across England and Wales. We help 28,000 people across our services each year and run the CAS-2 service for the Government housing people coming out of prison on bail or licence. We work with people at every stage of the criminal justice system, from liaison and diversion services in police custody and courts, to resettlement into the community after prison. We use the insights from our services and the experiences of the people we support to campaign together for a criminal justice system which better serves us all. We’ve been working in this field for more than 50 years.
