Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Geraint Davies and Sam Gyimah

Tuesday 6th September 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gyimah]

My hon. Friend will no doubt have seen the Government’s response to the review on extremism. I assure him that we will continue to work tirelessly to ensure that extremist ideologies are not spread by any means, including mobile phones.

[Geraint Davies (Swansea West) (Lab/Co-op)]

There have been reports from Swansea prison of people throwing mobile phones over the wall, which provides anonymity that allows prisoners to indulge in all sorts of criminal activity. What is the Minister doing about that sort of thing?

[Mr Gyimah]

The hon. Gentleman makes an important point. Every governor I have spoken to in the last six weeks has mentioned the growing problem of illegal mobile phones in prison. I believe that technology is vital to detecting and blocking such phones. That is why, in addition to the range of technologies that have already been deployed across the prison estate, we have held a high-level meeting with mobile network operators and asked them to use their expertise to develop new technological solutions to deny mobile phone signals in prisons. As responsible businesses, I expect those operators to co-operate fully.