Guidance

Annex A: counter corruption framework

Published 17 August 2026

Detention Services’ (DS) efforts to tackle corruption are integral to deliver a safe and secure immigration removal estate for detained individuals, staff and the local community. Corruption in the immigration removal estate risks facilitating the flow of drugs, mobile phones and other illicit items into IRCs. These, in turn, could fuel violence, debt and an illicit economy.

Corruption puts the safety of detained individuals, visitors and staff at risk.

Corruption damages the reputation of the organisations working in the immigration removal estate; reduces workforce morale and performance; and compromises confidence in the Home Office and the CSPs’ ability to run a safe and secure immigration removal  estate. 

DS has a clear ambition for tackling corruption, and this is to create an organisation resilient to corruption through four strategic approaches:

PREVENT staff from engaging in corruption and serious criminality by recruiting a resilient workforce, strengthening capability and professional integrity and managing corruption risks. 

PROTECT against corruption by understanding threats, having robust policies, processes and procedures in place and holding ourselves to account. 

PURSUE and prosecute those involved in corruption through disciplinary and criminal justice outcomes. 

PREPARE for the consequences of corrupt behaviour and support teams and individuals where corruption has occurred.

The DS CCIU play a key role in supporting CSP staff to tackle corruption throughout the immigration removal estate. DS CCIU will work in partnership with the CSP to develop counter corruption measures, raise awareness on the threat of corruption, prevent corruption and support the CSPs to pursue corruption wherever it takes place.

The Home Office and the CSPs will drive a culture in which people work to the highest professional standards and will address wrongdoing sensitively and fairly, with the intention of preventing it escalating into corruption. Where corruption does take place CSPs will provide a robust response with the support of DS CCIU.

All staff at all grades, and in any role, have a responsibility to protect the integrity of the immigration removal estate against corruption. While the DSO outlines the important

minimum mandatory actions, it is vital that all staff behave professionally in everything they do. Staff must consciously maintain professional boundaries as they develop dynamic and supportive relationships with detained individuals, speaking promptly to counter corruption staff if they are at all concerned.

A non-exhaustive list of criminal activities and / or inappropriate behaviours that fall within the definition of corruption are:

• Conveying prohibited or restricted items into or out of an IRC or the PDA contrary to Immigration and Asylum Act 1999; (Prohibited and controlled items lists are available at each IRC) 
• Aiding a detained individual/s to escape. 
• Forming inappropriate relationships (with detained individuals or those known to them e.g. friends or family members) including any individuals known to have been detained. Inappropriate relationships may take various forms including:
  • Intimate or romantic relationships
  • Friendships
  • Improper emotional relationships / familial feelings towards a detained individual/s, likening them, for example, to your own children / siblings and treating them as such.
• Sexual behaviour with a detained individual/s. 
• Sexually assaulting a detained individual/s. 
• Disclosing any personal, sensitive or restricted information or data to a detained individual/s or the public, without authorisation; (it is recognised that disclosures for ‘whistleblowing and integrity’ purposes are likely to be unauthorised. Staff should refer to local whistleblowing and integrity policies to be clear if a disclosure is protected by the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998). Staff should be familiar with DSO 03/2020 Whistleblowing and the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 (c.23). 
• Inappropriately influencing or blackmailing staff or detained individuals, including to engage in criminal activity.
• Accepting or seeking bribes or favours, including for commercial purposes
• including fraud.
• Failure to discharge duties or follow procedures to the required standard (e.g. consistent failure to perform a search or consistently performing a search poorly, intentionally failing to acknowledge the discovery of contraband during a search, or a change in the standard to which duties are performed in specific contexts).
• Theft of Home Office or CSP money or property, Home Office assets or a detained individual’s money or property.