Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will publish the most recent Public Health England advice on (a) the covid-19 outbreak and risks of further infection in prisons and (b) the assessed efficacy of individual covid-19 control measures used in prisons during the first months of the outbreak.

Her Majesty Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) has worked closely with Public Health England (PHE) in developing our policies and procedures in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. This includes our overall strategy as well as the response to any outbreak in individual prisons.

We are committed to transparency in our approach. PHE advice on preventing and controlling outbreaks in prisons is available on gov.uk at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-prisons-and-other-prescribed-places-of-detention-guidance.

All of the interventions in place are interlinked and cannot be considered in isolation. An assessment of the impact of the HMPPS population management strategy was previously made by PHE, and is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-population-management-strategy-for-prisons. We continue to work closely with PHE to develop our response to the pandemic and understand how to refine it.

Closed settings such as prisons pose particular challenges in managing outbreaks, but we have well-developed policies and procedures in place to manage outbreaks and infectious diseases, including COVID-19. This means prisons are well prepared to take immediate action whenever cases or suspected cases are identified. Our measures have included adapting prison regimes to support social distancing and PPE usage, expanding the estate with new temporary units, and compartmentalising our prisons into different units to isolate the sick, shield the vulnerable and quarantine new arrivals.