IAPDC Chair, Lynn Emslie, highlights key work to prevent custody deaths in her mid-term report
Lynn Emslie, Chair of the IAPDC, has today published her mid-term report which highlights progress made since she began her tenure in February 2023.
The IAPDC has provided expert advice to Ministers, senior officials, and other custody partners on cross-governmental policy and practice to reduce deaths in custody.
In the report’s foreword, Lynn writes:
“Safeguarding the lives of those under the care of the state is hugely important and rewarding, but it faces significant challenges. People in custody are some of society’s most vulnerable and require dedicated care and support to meet their underlying – and often unaddressed – mental and physical health needs. As a Panel, we remain unwavering in our commitment to working with government, agencies, and services to reduce avoidable deaths in state custody.”
Work the IAPDC has undertaken includes:
- Producing an innovative statistical analysis of death rates across all custody areas – see report here.
- Driving forward key recommendations to enhance coroners’ Prevention of Future Death reports – see report here.
- Identifying risk factors for premature deaths among psychiatric patients – see report here.
- Influencing the Government’s five-year suicide prevention strategy to ensure greater focus on custody – see report here.
- Collaborating across sectors to drive forward a zero-tolerance approach to police custody deaths.
- Scoping arrangements for independent investigation of deaths under the Mental Health Act.
You can read the report here.