Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the rollout of new prison scanners in preventing contraband from entering those sites.

We have invested £100m to combat crime in prisons, including reducing the conveyance of illicit items such as drugs and mobile phones.

Since 2020, we have installed an additional 75 X-ray body scanners, bringing the total to 97 and providing coverage to the entire closed adult male estate. As of October 2022, there have been 28,626 positive indications recorded on these scanners.

A full evaluation of our security investments is underway and will be published in 2023.

We are also in the process of deploying 83 X-ray baggage scanners across the prison estate. The effectiveness of these scanners will be considered as part of a separate evaluation.