The prison was given an Independent Review of Progress in February 2025, 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 Nottingham is a category B reception and resettlement prison serving the courts of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, run by HM Prison and Probation Service, holding around 924 men at its last full inspection against a certified normal accommodation of 724. A full inspection in May 2024 rated purposeful activity Poor, a decline from not sufficiently good, while safety, respect and preparation for release all remained unchanged at not sufficiently good, not sufficiently good and reasonably good respectively. This Independent Review of Progress, carried out in February 2025, checks progress against the concerns raised then rather than re-scoring the four healthy prison tests.
Inspectors found reasonable progress on self-harm, where the prison had begun developing a more focused approach despite rates remaining high, and on key work delivery, on support for prisoners with serious mental illness awaiting hospital transfer, and on preparing prisoners approaching release. Officer inexperience had also improved, with the proportion of staff with under two years’ service down to around a quarter, from around 40% previously.
Inspectors nonetheless found insufficient progress on rising prisoner-on-prisoner violence, where there was still no overarching violence-reduction action plan, and on time out of cell, with around 40% of the population unemployed and unlocked for only two hours a day. Public protection arrangements remained weak, and prisoners withdrawing from alcohol still could not be adequately observed on the induction wing. Ofsted-linked concerns over education also persisted, with an inefficient allocation process and poor quality of provision both found to have made insufficient progress.
Charlie Taylor
HM Chief Inspector of Prisons
April 2025
To read the full reports, go to the HM Inspectorate of Prisons website or follow the links below:
| Independent Review of Progress report, HM Inspectorate of Prisons review of progress at HMP Nottingham (24–26 February 2025, published 7 April 2025) | Inspection report (PDF), Report on an unannounced inspection of HMP Nottingham by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons (13–24 May 2024, published 19 August 2024) |
| Easy read summary of the 2024 inspection report | |