Prison Communications

Kevin Brennan Excerpts

Tuesday 11th November 2014 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. That is why I very much welcome the tone taken by the current shadow Secretary of State and, indeed, by the former Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, the right hon. Member for Blackburn (Mr Straw). This practice has affected both Governments, and it may well predate 2006 as well. The truth is that millions of calls are made in our prison system all the time, and mistakes will happen, but we have to learn from them when they do.

[Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West) (Lab)]

The Secretary of State said that Members were correctly identified on the system in 15 cases, but the calls were still recorded and appear to have been listened to. Is it possible that a criminal offence was committed by someone listening to those calls in the full knowledge that they were from MPs, and will that form part of the inquiry?

[Chris Grayling]

I do not believe that this is a criminal matter, because the guidelines are set out in prison rules. I would certainly take a pretty dim view if any member of staff had intentionally broken the rules to listen in to a set of calls involving a Member of Parliament. We will obviously wait to see what the investigation throws up, but I suspect that this is a case of error rather than intent. I am setting up the investigation to confirm that.