Prisons: Coronavirus

(asked on 30th October 2020) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) cases of covid-19 and (b) covid-19 related deaths there have been in each prison in England and Wales as of 23 October 2020; and if he will publish that data on a weekly basis.


Answered by
Lucy Frazer Portrait
Lucy Frazer
Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
This question was answered on 4th November 2020

Verified data on the number of prisoners that have tested positive for COVID-19 and the number of prisoner deaths is published on gov.uk for the period up to the 30 September 2020, via the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hmpps-covid-19-statistics-september-2020.

Published data for the total number of covid-19 cases and covid-19 related deaths for prisons in England and Wales will be updated on 13 November 2020 with data to 31 October 2020. We are currently considering options regarding the weekly publishing of this information and the providing of details by individual prisons.

Closed settings such as prisons pose particular challenges in managing outbreaks, but we have implemented strong measures to mitigate this risk, guided by public health advice, and with the safety of those staff working in all our establishments and prisoners remaining the absolute priority.

We have begun introducing a testing regime for staff and prisoners across all prisons in England and Wales to help identify and isolate cases early and control the spread of coronavirus. Routine staff testing will also be rolled out from November for both directly employed and non-directly employed staff who work with prisoners on a weekly basis. Reception and transfer testing for prisoners is now in place in seven prisons in England and two in Wales. Further sites are expected to begin testing over the coming weeks with a focus on reception prisons first.

Testing is one of the many mitigations methods that have been introduced to manage the spread of infection. This sits alongside the face mask strategy for staff, compartmentalisation, additional single-cell accommodation and the social distancing measures. All of these measures collectively contribute to preventing the spread of coronavirus and protect staff, residents and the public and it is important to continue to follow all of the guidelines in place.

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