IAPDC submits evidence on deaths in custody data to UN Special Rapporteur

The IAPDC recently submitted written evidence to the ‘call for input’ on deaths in custody by the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on extra-judicial, summary, or arbitrary executions, Morris Tidball-Binz. The Panel’s evidence sets out existing practices for data collection on deaths in prisons, immigration detention, police custody, and the deaths of patients detained under the Mental Health Act.

The Panel also highlights some of the key issues it encounters in making use of the data to understand, and direct interventions towards, deaths in custody. These include the Independent Office for Police Conduct’s classification of ‘other deaths following police contact’ – a category which includes concerning examples of police contact deaths but which remains opaque – and the lack of high-quality, disaggregated data on deaths of patients detained under the Mental Health Act, which is published by the Care Quality Commission.

The submission makes clear the importance of data which is updated and published frequently, and which is fully disaggregated. It also calls for services to take steps to understand and share findings on cause of death as early as possible and, where possible, for data to be published by rate. The importance of understanding the rates of death according to population is highlighted by the IAPDC’s ground-breaking 2021 research which found that while more deaths take place in prison, people detained under the Mental Health Act have the highest mortality rate of those in custody, including three times higher than the mortality rate in prisons.

Submissions made to the Special Rapporteur will inform a forthcoming report on deaths in custody, which will be presented to the Human Rights Council later this year. The report will aim to raise awareness about deaths in custody globally and contribute to the protection of the right to life of those deprived of liberty.

Read the IAPDC’s evidence (opens in a new window)