FOI release

Deaths due to physical restraint in NHS settings

Published 2 March 2026

Request

Please provide information already recorded, collated, or reportable by your organisation relating to deaths involving the use of physical restraint in acute NHS settings from 1 January 2000 to the present.

For the purposes of this request, “restraint” refers to physical or mechanical restraint used by staff and recorded as relevant in incident reporting, investigation, or governance processes.

To reduce burden and cost, this request is limited as follows:

Please confirm whether your organisation holds any recorded cases during this period where restraint was identified to be one of the following:

• a cause of death
• a contributory factor
• a significant element of the incident preceding death

If such cases are recorded, please provide summary-level information only, such as:

• total number of recorded deaths involving restraint
• years in which these deaths occurred
• the type of acute setting, for example: emergency department; acute ward

Please indicate whether any of these deaths resulted in:

• a Serious Incident (SI) investigation
• a Patient Safety Incident Investigation
• a Coroner’s Prevention of Future Death (PFD) report

Where readily available and without exceeding cost limits, please provide publicly accessible references or links to PFD reports or published investigation summaries where restraint is explicitly mentioned.

This request does not ask for:

• full medical records
• line-by-line review of historical case files
• creation of new data or analysis

If the information requested is not held in the format described, please confirm what relevant information is held within existing reporting or governance systems.

If any part of this request is considered to exceed the Section 12 cost limit, I request advice and assistance under Section 16 to refine it further, rather than refusal of the request in full.

Response

The SIA does not hold any information in respect of deaths involving the use of physical restraint in acute NHS settings from 1 January 2000 to the present.

The SIA is the organisation responsible for regulating the private security industry. We are an independent body reporting to the Home Secretary, under the terms of the Private Security Industry Act 2001. Our remit covers the United Kingdom. The Private Security Industry Act 2001 outlines a system for the statutory regulation of the private security industry.

The SIA has two main duties. One is the compulsory licensing of individuals undertaking designated activities within the private security industry; the other is to manage the voluntary Approved Contractor Scheme, which measures private security suppliers against independently assessed criteria.

The SIA applies to be an ‘Interested Person’ at an inquest only where the incident involved SIA licensed individuals undertaking designated activities within the private security industry. Our remit does not extend to in-house security provision.

We are reliant upon our partner agencies and the coroners’ courts informing us where there is a death which involved an SIA regulated security operative so that we may register our interest accordingly.

NHS Trusts will hold details of deaths involving the use of physical restraint in acute NHS settings from 1 January 2000 to the present. The Courts and Judiciary website has a function whereby you are able to search for Prevention of Future Death Reports and filter by keywords.

[Ref: FOI 0577]