Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of prisoners in the (a) adult male, (b) adult female and (c) youth estate have access to (i) in-cell telephony and (ii) in-cell intranet; and if he will make a statement.

Currently there are just over 36,500 cells across the public estate with live in-cell telephony. There are 13 private prisons, nearly 11,500 cells, which also have live in-cell telephony. Across both the public and private prisons, 63% of the estate has in-cell telephony. Please note for (a) and (c) figures are not fully reflective due to some locations having both adult male and YOI.

This data only refers to cabled in-cell telephony. Since March 2020 we have deployed over 1000 secure mobile pin-phones to ensure that those sites without in-cell telephones have been able to maintain contact with family and friends.

In cell telephony:

(a) In 47% of adult male prisons the roll out is completed (figures based on 94 closed male prisons)

(b) All of the closed female estate will have in-cell telephony by March 2021. Currently at 63%, in five of eight sites, the roll out is currently complete.

(c) All of the closed youth custody estate has in-cell telephony. These four sites are: Cookham Wood, Feltham, Wetherby and Werrington

In-cell intranet

Access to in-cell intranet requires in-cell technology, we provide this through in-cell laptops. There are currently two prisons which have in-cell laptops, these are HMP Wayland and HMP Berwyn.