The prison was given a full inspection in February 2025, with a further Independent Review of Progress carried out in January 2026 and published the following month; the full reports can be read on the HM Inspectorate of Prisons website, just follow the links below. In their latest report the inspectors said:
HMP Thameside is a category B local prison in Greenwich, south-east London, run by Serco under contract to HM Prison and Probation Service, holding 1,213 prisoners against a certified normal capacity of 1,235 at the time of the 2025 inspection. Inspectors rated safety, respect and purposeful activity all not sufficiently good, a decline across the board from reasonably good, while preparation for release improved to reasonably good from not sufficiently good. Charlie Taylor said healthcare at Thameside was “some of the worst that inspectors have seen in recent years,” prompting a CQC warning notice shortly after the inspection.
A newly appointed director had brought a more positive environment since taking over in April 2024, and induction reached 92% of prisoners, up from 78% previously and above the comparator average. Seven examples of notable good practice were identified, 71% of prisoners had a named keyworker, 65% felt treated with respect by staff and 79% said their faith was respected, both better than similar prisons, and 96% could shower daily.
Inspectors nonetheless found violence had risen sharply, with 523 assaults recorded in the year, up 44% since the previous inspection and the sixth-highest rate among comparable local prisons. More than a quarter of prisoners said drugs were easy to get, and a quarter of mandatory drug tests were positive. Two in five prisoners were locked in their cells during the working day, an application backlog ran to around 400 requests with some outstanding for over 100 days, and four patients waited more than 28 days for a mental health hospital transfer, one for as long as 85 days.
A follow-up Independent Review of Progress in January 2026 found the new leadership’s efforts to manage a large, constantly changing remand population commendable, but concluded there was still too much violence, too many serious incidents, and drugs remained too easily available, with a lot of work still needed on safety and purposeful activity.
Charlie Taylor
HM Chief Inspector of Prisons
January 2026
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 Thameside by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons (3–13 February 2025, published 12 May 2025) | Easy read summary of the 2025 inspection report |
| Action plan, HM Prison and Probation Service action plan in response to the 2025 inspection of HMP Thameside | Independent Review of Progress (PDF), HM Inspectorate of Prisons review of progress at HMP Thameside (12–14 January 2026, published 23 February 2026) |