HM Prison and Probation Service promised CCTV across HMP Bure's wings within two years, after inspectors said its absence was hindering investigations into assaults. The prison's next inspection brands that concern unaddressed, and the new action plan drops the installation date altogether.
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
In short. HMP Bure's action plan, submitted 6 February 2024 after inspectors found "no CCTV in accommodation and activity areas, which affected prisoners' feelings of safety and hindered investigations into alleged assaults," committed to a funding bid "by March 2024" and installation "within the next financial year (2024-25) or the year following (2025-2026)" [1]. HM Inspectorate of Prisons returned in June 2026 and recorded the same concern, word for word, as "not addressed" [3]. The prison's new action plan, submitted eight months after the deadline it set for itself, no longer gives any installation date: the Governor will "continue to progress the business case... to secure funding," target March 2027 [2]. Two more 2024 commitments, on self-catering and on communicating with prisoners about their sentences, are marked "not addressed" by the same report [3]. Three documented mistakes: four stars.
HMP Bure is a category C training prison in Norfolk holding 636 men convicted of sexual offences, many serving long or indeterminate sentences [3]. HM Inspectorate of Prisons inspected it twice in under three years: 2 to 12 October 2023, and again 8 to 18 June 2026 [1] [3]. Both times, HM Prison and Probation Service published a written action plan naming a Governor as responsible owner and giving a target date for each fix. The second report's own "progress on concerns from the last inspection" section is the most direct scorecard a public body can publish on itself, and three of its entries read "not addressed" against commitments the prison made in writing less than two years earlier.
The promise that lost its date
The 2024 plan's response to the CCTV concern was specific and dated. MoJ Property would develop installation proposals for "all residential units, segregation, and the Learning Resource Centre," with a funding bid "submitted by March 2024," reviewed against other estate-wide requests "with a view to completing the installations either within the next financial year (2024-25) or the year following (2025-2026)" [1]. That gave HMPPS until April 2026, at the outside, to have cameras running.
The June 2026 inspection found the same gap it found in 2023: "inadequate oversight of prisoners on residential units. There was no CCTV, compounded by insufficient staff supervision on some wings" [2], with inspectors separately noting staff "congregating in offices, rather than actively supervising landings" [3]. Against the 2023 concern specifically, the report's own progress tracker records: not addressed [3].
The new action plan, submitted 28 September 2026, answers with a weaker commitment than the one it already missed. Where 2024 promised a submitted bid and a two-year installation window, 2026 promises only to "continue to progress the business case and engagement with HMPPS and Ministry of Justice stakeholders to secure funding for the installation of CCTV across residential units," target date March 2027 [2]. No installation date appears anywhere in the nine-page document. The only dated action attached to this concern is a commitment that Custodial Managers will spend more time on the wings, by December 2026 [2], which addresses the supervision half of the finding, not the cameras.
Two more promises, the same verdict
The 2024 plan also answered a finding that "there were too few opportunities for prisoners to cook for themselves or to dine communally," a concern it called "a major omission for a training prison with many men serving long sentences" [1]. The Head of Residence would "seek to expand the opportunities for prisoners to self-cook," target December 2024 [1]. The 2026 inspection found "self-catering facilities on the wings remained limited. Wings had toasters, microwaves and a few sandwich grills, which was insufficient for a category C prison holding many long-term prisoners," adding that prisoners "could not order fresh ingredients from the canteen to cook with" [3]. Not addressed, the progress tracker records [3]. The new plan commits only to a further review, "to develop a local model to increase self-catering opportunities for prisoners, within infrastructure constraints," target March 2027, alongside a parallel review of supply arrangements with DHL [2] - a second review, in place of the expansion the 2024 plan already promised to deliver.
The third repeat concerns communication. In 2024, HMPPS promised prisoners a new arrivals booklet within 48 hours, clearer communication of contact levels, and promotion of Keyworker engagement, with most of this marked for delivery by March 2024 [1]. The 2026 report found the prison had since added a contact centre, but that "many prisoners remained unaware of developments or became frustrated by a lack of accessible, coherent information, such as how often they could expect to see their prison offender manager" [3]. Not addressed, for the third time [3]. The new plan's answer is a prisoner survey, new information screens and a prisoner magazine, all targeted for April 2027 [2], running past the eighteen-month mark since the inspection found the previous round of fixes had not worked.
The claims, tested
| The 2024 action plan's own promise | What the 2026 inspection found | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| CCTV funding bid submitted by March 2024, installation within financial year 2024-25 or 2025-26 [1] | "There was no CCTV, compounded by insufficient staff supervision on some wings" [2]; the 2023 CCTV concern is marked not addressed [3] | The installation deadline passed with nothing installed, and the new plan no longer sets one |
| Self-cook opportunities expanded by December 2024 [1] | "Wings had toasters, microwaves and a few sandwich grills"; prisoners "could not order fresh ingredients"; marked not addressed [3] | The 2026 plan reviews the same problem again, rather than delivering the expansion already promised |
| Communication fixed via a new arrivals booklet and clearer contact expectations, mostly by March 2024 [1] | "Many prisoners remained unaware of developments" despite a contact centre added since; marked not addressed [3] | A second set of fixes, targeted April 2027, replaces a first set that did not work |
Credit where due
Not every 2023 concern recurred. Inspectors found that "leaders' efforts to reduce the supply of alcohol and drugs" had genuinely improved: the rate of positive random mandatory drug tests fell from 9.6% at the 2023 inspection to 2.1% in the twelve months before the 2026 one, which the report attributes to a more recovery-focused drug strategy and closer joint working with the substance misuse service [3]. That concern is marked addressed [3]. The prison's overall scores held up or improved too: safety and respect remained good, preparation for release remained reasonably good, and purposeful activity moved up a band, from poor to not sufficiently good [3]. HMPPS has also not hidden the comparison: both action plans are published side by side on the same GOV.UK page, and the 2026 plan reprints the inspection's own concern numbers rather than paraphrasing them away, which is what makes the gap between the two documents checkable at all [2].
Verdict
Four stars, from three documented mistakes. The drugs strategy worked, and the headline scores moved in the right direction. But on the three concerns examined here, HMP Bure made specific, dated promises in February 2024, missed every one of them, and the prison's own next inspection says so in as many words. The new action plan does not reckon with that record; it simply opens three new reviews, two of them for problems the 2024 plan already claimed to be solving, and in the one case with a hard capital cost attached, it removes the completion date rather than setting a later one.
The star score counts three documented mistakes: (1) the CCTV installation promised for financial year 2024-25 or 2025-26 was not delivered, the 2026 inspection marks the concern not addressed, and the new action plan sets no installation date at all; (2) the self-catering expansion promised by December 2024 was not delivered, marked not addressed, and the new plan opens a fresh review rather than delivering it; (3) the communication fixes promised for March 2024 did not resolve the concern, marked not addressed, and the new plan proposes a second, differently-shaped set of fixes. Three falls in the 1 to 3 band: four stars; the bands are on the ratings page. Checked directly against the February 2024 action plan (PDF, 7 pages), the September 2026 action plan (PDF, 9 pages) and the full HMIP inspection report, fetched 21 October 2026. The document is tracked in the Daily Register; any further revision will get a diff entry.
Sources
- HM Prison and Probation Service, "Bure Prison: action plan" (PDF, submitted 6 February 2024, responding to the HMIP inspection of 2 to 12 October 2023). https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65c0e22ac4319100141a4572/HMP_Bure_Action_Plan.pdf - landing page: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hmp-bure-action-plan
- HM Prison and Probation Service, "HMP Bure Action Plan" (PDF, submitted 28 September 2026, responding to the HMIP inspection of 8 to 18 June 2026). https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6ad5d29d0f7b53973e026864/HMP_Bure_action_plan_-_September_2026.pdf
- HM Inspectorate of Prisons, "HMP Bure" (report on an inspection, 8 to 18 June 2026, published 14 September 2026, checked 21 October 2026). https://hmiprisons.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmipris_reports/hmp-bure-3/