Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to his Department’s announcement of 25 January 2021, which prisons each of the 24 additional x-ray scanners will be installed in; which prisons will have x-ray scanners installed by 25 January 2021; and how much of the £100 million spend on prison security will be spent on those 24 additional x-ray scanners.

HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) is taking decisive action to stop mobile phones and illicit substances entering prison, and investing £100m to bolster prison security and tackle crime behind bars which fuels violence and self-harm. As part of this investment, 51 prisons across England and Wales will receive cutting edge X-ray body scanners which will assist in the detection of illicit articles secreted within prisoners entering establishments.

We have already installed a significant proportion of those planned within this financial year. As of 25 January 2021, we had installed X-ray body Scanners at 40 sites across England and Wales, which are listed below. This includes some not yet announced, which are indicated in bold. We will shortly be announcing which further sites are to be delivered by the end of March 2021.

With regards to the final part of the question ‘how much of the £100 million spend on prison security will be spent on those 24 additional x-ray scanners,’ due to the commercially sensitive nature of this information, HMPPS is unable to provide this figure.