Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department restricts the availability of literature to different categories of prisoners.

HMPPS does not restrict the availability of literature based on categories of prisoners.

Chapter 10 of the Public Protection Manual (PPM) PSI 18/2016 outlines HMPPS policy requirements to restrict or control prisoners’ access to certain material, including literature, and can be found at Public protection manual: PSI 18/2016 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Prisons automatically restrict every prisoner’s access to material which is ‘banned’ as defined in the Public Protection Manual. Prisons may also restrict access to other material on a case-by-case basis where it is assessed that this is necessary and proportionate in order to regulate a prisoner’s offending behaviour, to prevent crime, to promote rehabilitation and the reduction of re-offending and to allow good order and discipline to be maintained.