Prisons Policy/HMP Long Lartin Debate

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Department: Ministry of Justice

Prisons Policy/HMP Long Lartin

Philip Hollobone Excerpts
Thursday 12th October 2017

(6 years, 7 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Sam Gyimah Portrait Mr Gyimah
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We have some excellent trainees coming into the Prison Service. For example, one trainee I met had spent seven years in the NHS and was being deployed in HMP Woodhill, a prison where there have been high rates of self-harm and also self-inflicted deaths. That person is more experienced in dealing with the problems that prison is facing today than many who have been in the Prison Service for a long time. These are not raw recruits; in some cases, they are bringing new experience to the Prison Service. In the second world war, someone could be a bomber pilot at the age of 20, so I think someone can serve in the Prison Service at the age of 21 as well.

Philip Hollobone Portrait Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)
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If we want to significantly reduce the number of foreign nationals in our prisons, we need compulsory prisoner transfer agreements in place with countries around the world, so that these people are sent back to serve their sentence in prison in their own country—rather than being sent back when they have served the sentence already in this country.

I understand that about half the foreign nationals in our prisons are EU nationals. While we are a member of the EU, we are meant to be under the prisoner transfer directive. How many EU national prisoners have been sent back to the EU countries they came from?

Sam Gyimah Portrait Mr Gyimah
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I do not have that exact figure to hand but am willing to write to my hon. Friend with the answer.