Maintenance failures sparked Heathrow detention centre disturbances, FoI reveals

Freedom of information responses reveal damning findings of internal investigations into power cuts at Harmondsworth in 2022

A catalogue of maintenance failures over more than a decade caused power cuts that triggered disturbances at Europe's largest immigration detention centre last year, the Guardian has learned.

The disturbances at Harmondsworth, the 676-bed centre near Heathrow, led to elite prison squads and the Metropolitan police being called to the scene to quell the protest. As a result of the power failure the centre had to be closed for several weeks and detainees relocated to other detention centres and prisons around the UK.

No evidence of maintenance of air circuit breakers since installation and one had been tripping multiple times since June 2022

Some equipment still at risk of failure because it is obsolete and no longer manufactured

Switching strategy on some equipment not operational since 2008/9

Excessive heat buildup in the electrical switch room