Serious concerns have been raised about fire safety at HMP Bedford, after an investigation by the Howard League for Penal Reform found cells were still awaiting fire safety improvements and the installation of automatic fire detection systems.
The prison on St Loyes St appears in documents released by the charity as part of a wider national warning that more than 60 prisons in England and Wales were still waiting for fire safety improvements in late 2025.
Bedford on two lists
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According to the Howard League, HMP Bedford was on the Fire Safety Improvement Programme list as of 27 October 2025.
It also said that Bedford was listed as awaiting the installation of automatic fire detection (AFD) as of 30 September 2025.
AFD systems are designed to alert staff immediately when a fire breaks out in a cell.
In response to questions from the Bedford Independent, the Ministry of Justice said a fire safety project at HMP Bedford is due to begin this year.
“This Government inherited a prisons system in crisis, overcrowded and on the brink of collapse,” said a Ministry of Justice spokesperson.
“We take the safety of our prisons extremely seriously, and we are carrying out plans to meet fire safety standards across the estate as fast as possible.
“We have a fire safety project at HMP Bedford starting this year, and every cell is already either linked to an automatic fire detection system or using a smoke detector,” they added.
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The Ministry of Justice also said that since 2009, more than 40,000 cells across the prison estate have been fitted with in-cell automatic fire detection, and that every cell without AFD now has a battery-powered smoke detector.
It said £346 million was spent on fire safety improvement works between 2020/21 and 2024/25, with a further £171 million projected for 2025/26 and £275 million of projects already scheduled for the next financial year.
The MoJ said fire risk assessments are in place for all HMPPS-occupied buildings, including around 1,100 higher-risk prison accommodation blocks, and added that HMPPS is working with the Crown Premises Fire Safety Inspectorate to meet standards “as fast as possible”.
National warning over prison fire safety
The Howard League says the Ministry of Justice has known for nearly 20 years that tens of thousands of people in prison are being held in cells that do not meet lawful fire safety standards.
It says the Government had previously committed to making all cells fire-safe by the end of 2027, or taking them out of use, but has now stepped back from that deadline without setting a new one.
The charity says that, in autumn 2025, more than 40 prisons were still awaiting AFD installation, and more than 60 were awaiting wider fire safety improvements.
Among those named were several jails where fatal fires have taken place in recent years, including Eastwood Park, Swaleside, Chelmsford and Holme House.
Howard League threatens legal action
The Howard League said it obtained the documents through Freedom of Information requests.
It has since threatened legal action against the Government, arguing that people are still being held in unsafe conditions.
Andrea Coomber KC (Hon.), chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: “From chronic overcrowding and rising violence to record levels of self-harm and people being released by mistake, chaos in the prison system is rarely out of the headlines. Fire safety has largely remained under the radar until now.
“But the long-running detention of tens of thousands of people in fire-risk cells, and the government’s U-turn on a deadline to solve this, amount to a national scandal.
“After almost two decades of inaction by the Ministry of Justice, worried families are having to listen to yet more broken promises. We know that at least 11 people have died in cell fires since the government accepted its responsibility to install automatic fire detection equipment.
“How many more lives will be lost?”
The Ministry of Justice said the Howard League had already approached His Majesty’s Prisons and Probation Service (HMPPS) directly and that there was “no dispute that these matters must be addressed”.
Adding that HMPPS would “welcome active engagement with the Howard League on its plans”.
