​The FSEC (forensic and secure environments committee) represents the following types of doctors working in a range of secure settings:

• doctors providing primary care in young offender institutions, secure children’s homes or secure training centres in the UK
• doctors providing primary care in forensic psychiatric hospitals in the UK
• doctors providing general forensic medical services or sexual offence medical services in the UK
• doctors providing primary healthcare within immigration removal centres or short term holding facilities in the UK
• doctors providing primary healthcare in UK prisons.

We also represent doctors working as medical examiners, crematorium medical referees and clinical reviewers.

Our priorities

• Continue to establish our role and remit within the BMA and beyond.
• Work with our public affairs and medical ethics teams to influence Parliament in much needed reforms to prisons, policy custody, immigration detention and children being detained.
• Represent and support the wider profession in the Government’s ongoing reforms to death certification in England and Wales, and the implementation of the medical examiner system, which is set to be in place fully by September 2024.
• Lobby relevant bodies and authorities to recognise the crisis in forensic medicine particularly with pay erosion. 
• Challenge the detrimental effects of the privatisation of secure medicine in England, ensuring health care equity for those in secure environments are on par with those regular NHS services. This would fulfil the goal of HMPPS through the BMA, that every person in the secure estate is able to access equivalent care in the community and that the move to commissioning through integrated care systems improves continuity of care when people leave prisons or other secure environments.
• Address the crisis in staffing and recruitment through extreme vetting of healthcare professionals (ARM Motion 46)

Our prison GP email group is a continual source of interest and reference and we encourage any prison GPs (members or non-members) to join this group for much needed peer support in what can be a very isolating job. Contact [email protected] for more information.

Our people

The committee is made up of doctors with a range of backgrounds and experience, who are elected by their peers or appointed by relevant organisations.

Chair: Dr Marcus Bicknell

FSEC conference

The next biennial FSEC conference will focus on ‘Secure Healthcare in Secure Environments’ and will take place on Thursday 10 July 2025. For more information please email [email protected] 

The most recent FSEC conference focused on ‘Forensic and prison doctors’ and was held on Monday 17th July 2023.

Our meetings

The FSEC meets three times a year to discuss the latest issues that affect you. These meetings are open to committee members only.

Meeting dates 2024-25:

• Thursday 7 November 2024, hybrid (in-person and online via Microsoft Teams)

• Thursday 6 February 2025, virtual

• Thursday 15 May 2025, virtual

Meetings take place from 11am to 3pm either virtually or at:

BMA House
Tavistock Square
London
WC1H 9JP

How to join

There are many advantages to becoming involved in our committees. You can actively influence BMA policy-making and negotiations, represent your colleagues' voices and develop your leadership skills. 

Each committee has a few routes to becoming an elected member. In the case of FSEC, this is: 

The election section below is kept up to date with details about any running elections, so make sure you keep checking it throughout the year.  

Elections

Elections to the Forensic and secure environments committee are now closed.

Get in touch

If you have any questions or are interested in finding out more about the work of the FSEC, please email us at [email protected].