The prison was given a full inspection in August 2023, the full report can be read on the HM Inspectorate of Prisons website, just follow the links below. In their latest report the inspectors said:
HMP Huntercombe is a category C prison for adult male foreign national prisoners near Sonning Common, Oxfordshire, run by HM Prison and Probation Service, one of only two prisons in England with this specific remit. It holds 468 prisoners against an operational capacity of 480. Inspectors rated safety Good, unchanged, respect Good, an improvement from Reasonably Good, purposeful activity Not Sufficiently Good, a decline from Good, and rehabilitation and release planning Not Sufficiently Good, an improvement from Poor but still a weak area overall. Inspectors described a safe and respectful prison where prisoners facing uncertain immigration futures were well looked after, with excellent, visible governor leadership.
Since this inspection, an Independent Monitoring Board annual report published in June 2025 confirmed Huntercombe’s role is unchanged, but flagged that the heating and hot water system remains not fit for purpose five years on, running on temporary boilers since November 2022, alongside a spike in drug-related medical emergencies in August 2024 and a rise in prisoner-on-staff assaults.
Inspectors praised innovative practices including a “Stoicism” emotional-management programme, a pop-up health hub, and improved resettlement support for prisoners facing deportation, with good staff-prisoner relationships in health and workshop settings.
Inspectors raised four priority concerns among fourteen overall: Home Office decision-making delays left prisoners held past their removal or release dates, causing distress and hampering release planning; some staff did not understand foreign national prisoners’ specific concerns; there were insufficient full-time purposeful activity places, worsened by staffing shortages; and recategorisation decisions were driven mainly by Home Office interest rather than individual risk assessment, blocking progress to open conditions. Further concerns included slow reception processes, poor violence-data analysis, low body-worn camera use, and gaps in psychology provision.
Charlie Taylor
HM Chief Inspector of Prisons
October 2023
To read the full reports, go to the HM Inspectorate of Prisons website or follow the links below:
| Inspection report (PDF), Report on an unannounced inspection of HMP Huntercombe by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons (14–24 August 2023, published 13 November 2023) | Easy read summary of the 2023 inspection report |
| Action plan, HM Prison and Probation Service action plan in response to the 2023 inspection of HMP Huntercombe | |