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UK Local prison operated by HM Prison & Probation Service. Listed in the GOV.UK Find a prison directory.
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Operational
Figures from official sources · verified 7 Jul 2026 · methodology
Operator
HM Prison & Probation ServicePopulation held
male
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Death-row facility
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around 1,200 men and the population changes rapidly, with about 100 This review visit followed up on concerns we raised at our last made the following judgements about outcomes for prisoners. Figure 1: HMP Thameside healthy prison outcomes in 2021 and 2025 At the inspection in February 2025, we found that outcomes in our healthy prison test for ‘safety’ had deteriorated. Levels of violence had increased, and too much of it was serious in nature. Drugs were too Outcomes in our test for ‘respect’ had also got worse, principally On this visit, levels of violence were much higher than at our 2021 inspection and were often caused by gang issues and the ingress of illegal drugs. — UK IMB Annual Report (2024) — Safety: 4.1 Reception and induction HMP Thameside is one of the busiest remand prisons in London, with up to 100 prisoners processed through reception daily. Some will be releases and some transfers to and from other prisons, while others will be new arrivals and returns from courts. The Board continues to be concerned about the number of nights that reception is open well after the lock-out time of 8pm, [...] Respect: 5.1 Accommodation, clothing, food Although facilities on the accommodation blocks at HMP Thameside are relatively modern in comparison with many prisons, the Board has previously raised concerns regarding: • Inadequate heating and ventilation system: unfortunately, the building design means little can be done to address this. • Frequent breakdowns of houseblock lifts: a programme of lift [...] Purposeful activity: 7.1.1 Education The education department comprises a dedicated building with space for up to 80 learners per session. Beyond the education block, there are a further six classrooms and an industrial cleaning workshop. The education provider, Novus, delivers the Prison Education Framework contract for Thameside. The curriculum includes a range of courses such as English, Maths, 35 ESOL (English [...] Preparation for release: The contract for the offender management unit (OMU) at Thameside continues to be fulfilled by the third sector organisation Catch 22. The role of the OMU is to support the custodial sentences of prisoners. Although it is not contracted to offer case management support to remand prisoners, who constitute up to 90% of Thameside’s population, Catch 22 runs a remand prisoner advice service, answering [...] Progression: HMP Thameside has been a reception and resettlement prison since September 2020. Sentenced prisoners classed as category C and near the end of their sentence make up an increasingly small proportion of the prison’s population (10%-25%). It is these prisoners at whom the majority of the progression and resettlement services are aimed. Services are provided by a patchwork of [...]
This review visit followed up on concerns we raised at our last On this visit, levels of violence were much higher than at our 2021 inspection
Format: Prisoner Name & Number, HMP Thameside. Use Send Money to a Prisoner (GOV.UK) for funds — cash not accepted.
Note: rehabilitation and release planning became ‘preparation for release’ in October 2023 getting their inhalers for days after arrival. Without the work of one particularly wing work. Standards of education were inconsistent, and attendance was not slow and inefficient, which meant that classes and workshops were not full even sense of optimism around the jail. Given this work, it was not surprising that prisoners who were often at the end of their sentence and preparing for release.
healthy prison test for ‘safety’ had deteriorated. Levels of violence had increased, and too much of it was serious in nature. Drugs were too easily available. Prisoners at risk of suicide and self-harm did not get On this visit, levels of violence were much higher than at our 2021 inspection and were often caused by gang issues and the ingress of illegal drugs.
Derived signal — not a judgement. How it's calculated
What the score is responding to:
This facility scores 25. The national average across 584 scored United Kingdom facilities is 4 — 21 points above national average.
Same country, matched on type + security level where possible.
1.1 HMP Thameside is a large, modern men’s reception prison located in south-east London. It was built in 2012 and is operated by Serco Justice and Immigration as part of a 25-year contract. The prison holds around 1,200 men and the population changes rapidly, with about 100 arrivals every week. 1.2 This review visit followed up on concerns we raised at our last inspection in February 2025. What we found at our last inspection 1.3 At our previous inspections of HMP Thameside in 2021 and 2025 we made the following judgements about outcomes for prisoners. Figure 1: HMP Thameside healthy prison outcomes in 2021 and 2025 Note: rehabilitation and release planning became ‘preparation for release’ in October 2023 1.4 At the inspection in February 2025, we found that outcomes in our healthy prison test for ‘safety’ had deteriorated. Levels of violence had increased, and too much of it was serious in nature. Drugs were too easily available. Prisoners at risk of suicide and self-harm did not get good enough support. 1.5 Outcomes in our test for ‘respect’ had also got worse, principally because of some unusually serious weaknesses in health care.
Thameside is a large, modern category B reception prison in South East London and held 1,213 men at the time of this inspection. On this visit, levels of violence were much higher than at our 2021 inspection and were often caused by gang issues and the ingress of illegal drugs. This led to a reduction in our healthy prison score for safety, from reasonably good to not sufficiently good. Data showed that the rate of assaults on prisoners was the sixth highest among category B reception prisons. The health care at Thameside was some of the worst that inspectors have seen in recent years. There was a huge inconsistency in the service provided and some critical failings, such as it taking months to get prisoners to hospital despite being given a two-week cancer referral and those with asthma not getting their inhalers for days after arrival. Without the work of one particularly committed and effective doctor, things could have been much worse. These failings were particularly disappointing because the service provider had been issued a notice to improve from the Care Quality Commission more than a year before. Many of the prisoners at Thameside suffer from drug addiction and while initial support was good, much more should be made of the incentivised substance free living (ISFL) wing, which operated as more of a glorified enhanced wing, rather than a transformative intervention to support prisoners overcome their addiction. Despite decent staff-prisoner relationships and reasonable living conditions, the concerns in health care took our respect healthy prison test score down from reasonably good to not sufficiently good, with some inspectors arguing for an even lower grade. Elsewhere, things had improved. Prisoners were out of their cells for much longer than in most reception jails. Although too many were underemployed in wing work. Standards of education were inconsistent, and attendance was not good enough, with prisoners often arriving late. Allocations to activities were slow and inefficient, which meant that classes and workshops were not full even though prisoners were stuck on waiting lists. The curriculum had been adapted to meet the needs of both longer-term sentenced prisoners and those on remand who would only be in the jail for a few months. Offender management services dealing with higher-risk cases suffered similar pressures to other London jails, which are affected by the difficulties in recruiting staff into probation services. At Thameside, probation prison offender managers had large caseloads – including one with 90. In contrast, the rest of the population was looked after by Catch 22 staff in an innovative, commissioned model in which caseloads were manageable and contact was maintained with prisoners. The well-regarded director arrived at the jail in April 2024 and, with the support of his experienced deputy, had taken on some dysfunctional relationships between senior managers and created a coherent, united leadership team. High levels of visibility around the jail from leaders, including the director, was appreciated by staff and prisoners alike. The director made sure to communicate his priorities and values to staff and prisoners and there was a sense of optimism around the jail. Given this work, it was not surprising that staff provision had improved. Inspectors left with some hope that if the current, ambitious leaders remained in place, then Thameside would continue to make progress. The problems with the health provision must be fixed urgently and more needs to be done to bear down on the high levels of violence. Charlie Taylor HM Chief Inspector of Prisons March 2025
7.1.1 Education The education department comprises a dedicated building with space for up to 80 learners per session. Beyond the education block, there are a further six classrooms and an industrial cleaning workshop. The education provider, Novus, delivers the Prison Education Framework contract for Thameside. The curriculum includes a range of courses such as English, Maths, 35 ESOL (English for speakers of other languages), Art, ICT (information and communications technology), multimedia, SFEDI (small firms enterprise development initiative)/business, customer service, peer mentoring, and industrial cleaning. The current curriculum has been adapted from previous years to include more short courses to support the high turnover of prisoners at Thameside, including health and safety, teamwork and communication, British values and equality and diversity. As in previous years, the IMB understands that recruitment has continued to impact education provision. Between July 2024 and March 2025 (nine months), vacancies increased from three to six. As of June 2025, three staff had been appointed and were awaiting vetting. The Board has highlighted issues with Novus recruitment in the previous four annual reports. Data provided by Novus shows that from 4,236 course starts (up from 3,921 last year), 3,856 were completed. This reflects a completion rate3 of 91%, with an achieved rate4 of 86%. Completion rates last year were similar, at 90%, while the achieved rate was slightly less, at [...]
5.1 Accommodation, clothing, food Although facilities on the accommodation blocks at HMP Thameside are relatively modern in comparison with many prisons, the Board has previously raised concerns regarding: • Inadequate heating and ventilation system: unfortunately, the building design means little can be done to address this. • Frequent breakdowns of houseblock lifts: a programme of lift replacement has continued during the reporting year, which has included the lift in the education block and the faith centre. The lift in the gym remains out of use, which means that prisoners with mobility issues are unable to access the cardio room. • The number of broken/faulty in-cell CMS systems: several initiatives have been put in place - see below. • Broken/faulty observation panels in cell doors - see below. During the previous reporting year, the prison undertook a major decency project, which included new flooring in the houseblocks, cell refurbishment and replacing the CMS system. This has continued during the current reporting year, although broken/faulty in-cell CMS still occur with depressing frequency. Lack of access to CMS greatly impacts prisoners’ lives, as most of the routine systems and processes in the prison rely on it, e.g, booking visits, ordering canteen and booking gym and library sessions, as well as contacting the various prison departments. In particular, prisoners are required to use CMS to raise any concerns/complaints before using the formal complaints system [...]
The contract for the offender management unit (OMU) at Thameside continues to be fulfilled by the third sector organisation Catch 22. The role of the OMU is to support the custodial sentences of prisoners. Although it is not contracted to offer case management support to remand prisoners, who constitute up to 90% of Thameside’s population, Catch 22 runs a remand prisoner advice service, answering questions submitted by prisoners via the CMS and general queries about remand prisoners from prison staff. Prior to the introduction of the Bail Information Service (BIS) in October 2024, Catch 22 was submitting referrals for bail accommodation via CAS-2. 38 Catch 22’s functions are measured through key performance indicators (KPIs), which it generally fulfils to notably high levels: between 96% and 99% for all three KPIs across the reporting year. These requirements are met by a team of prisoner offender managers (POMs). Once a prisoner has completed a basic screening (usually in the first 72 hours), they will be allocated a POM, who will complete a prisoner’s sentence (OASys) plan and provide subsequent case management, subject to eligibility. Case management can be wide ranging, involving work on ‘recall packs’, supporting prisoners through parole proceedings, attending multi-agency meetings, and handing over to community offender managers (COMs). At a spot check in June 2025, Catch 22 had 11 POMs in post, down from a full complement of 15. Prospective POMs were going through [...]
HMP Thameside has been a reception and resettlement prison since September 2020. Sentenced prisoners classed as category C and near the end of their sentence make up an increasingly small proportion of the prison’s population (10%-25%). It is these prisoners at whom the majority of the progression and resettlement services are aimed. Services are provided by a patchwork of organisations/departments, some of which are Serco managed and others directly contracted by HMPPS. For the fifth year running, recruitment issues have had a significant impact on provision (see 7.1.1; 7.5; 7.5.3). The Board has also identified a number of concerns, which have impacted negatively on the services provided and, consequently, the support to which prisoners are entitled. These include inaccurate recording of mandatory tasks completed (see 7.5) and examples of inadequate record keeping of the work carried out (see 7.5.3). Additionally, the Board has been unable to access the minutes of a number of meetings, despite repeated requests, and at least one key monthly meeting appears to have been frequently cancelled for the majority of the reporting year. Given the number of organisations involved in resettlement, the lack of robust oversight inevitably limits the opportunity for the various services to work in a more coordinated way. As in previous years, the Board has continued to have considerable difficulty obtaining data for this annual report from some services, despite repeated requests over [...]
4.1 Reception and induction HMP Thameside is one of the busiest remand prisons in London, with up to 100 prisoners processed through reception daily. Some will be releases and some transfers to and from other prisons, while others will be new arrivals and returns from courts. The Board continues to be concerned about the number of nights that reception is open well after the lock-out time of 8pm, which has increased over the reporting year. The Board understands that there are two factors contributing to this: 1 In the first half of the reporting year, some delays were due to the late arrival of healthcare staff for their shifts in reception. While this has improved, delays have continued because of the time required to screen new prisoners, many of whom arrive with complex health needs. This assessment of health needs is essential for maintaining prisoner safety, as well as for care/treatment planning. The Board understands that, in the latter part of the year, prison staff have been working with healthcare staff to explore ways of minimising delays, whilst still maintaining prisoner safety. 2 An acknowledged contributor to delays in reception has been the increase in court vans arriving after 8pm. This is mainly due to the courts sitting later than before to alleviate the backlog of cases. While the Board welcomes any measure to reduce the time remand prisoners wait for their cases to be heard, this has had a negative impact on prisoners and staff at Thameside. Late [...]
Thameside is a modern category B local prison in south-east London that contained 1,194 prisoners at the time of our inspection. Around 60% of those held were on remand or unsentenced and almost a quarter were category C prisoners who were often at the end of their sentence and preparing for release. The prison had been too slow to increase the amount of time that prisoners were unlocked, with those in the induction and drugs wing spending little more than half an hour a day out of their cells. Remand prisoners were locked up for up to 23.5 hours a day with very few activities on offer; this was particularly concerning for the 60 prisoners who had been on remand for more than a year. A COVID-19 outbreak that occurred just as the prison was entering stage two of the HMPPS five stage recovery framework meant that restrictions could not be lifted, but since then leaders should have done more to open up the regime and increase what was on offer for prisoners. Offender management unit (OMU) staff were doing some excellent work in the prison – they proactively contacted prisoners, were a visible presence on the wings and provided good support. This was the best provision I had seen during the last year and, because the prison had outsourced offender management work to Catch 22, staff were not cross deployed to other duties as we so often see in jails. Despite this, the reunification of probation services had badly affected the large remand population, as essential support with housing, benefits and managing debt (that was previously provided by community
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World Prisons. (2026). HMP Thameside. Retrieved July 21, 2026, from https://worldprisons.com/prisons/hmp-thameside
"HMP Thameside." World Prisons. Accessed July 21, 2026. https://worldprisons.com/prisons/hmp-thameside.
@misc{worldprisons-hmp-thameside,
author = {{World Prisons}},
title = {HMP Thameside},
year = {2026},
url = {https://worldprisons.com/prisons/hmp-thameside},
urldate = {2026-07-21}
}