Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many staff are employed by the Prison Service to book family and solicitor visits for prisoners and people on remand in prisons; on how many occasions phone lines and internet facilities to make those bookings were unavailable in January and February 2018; and what effect the level of unavailability had on solicitor visits during that time period.

Prisons in England and Wales are required to carry out these duties in line with Prison Service Instruction (PSI) 16/2011. This PSI can be found at: https://www.justice.gov.uk/offenders/psis/prison-service-instructions-2011

This specific information requested is not collected centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.