Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people were kept in solitary confinement at (a) HMP Lincoln and (b) nationally in each month of each of the last five years for which figures are available.

In instances where prisoners are removed from normal location they are not left in isolation for extended periods of time and are never, therefore, held in conditions of solitary confinement.

Prisoners may, be held in segregation for reasons of good order and discipline or for their own protection. They may also be segregated to await adjudication or as a punishment of cellular confinement for offences against prison discipline. Prisoners are only segregated where it is proportionate to the risk posed by or to the prisoner in question and where there are no practical alternatives. Segregation is only in circumstances that are lawful, safe and decent.

Figures for the number of prisoners held in segregation during the period specified are not recorded centrally and could only be provided by collating the relevant information from records held at (a) Lincoln prison and (b) all prisons. In either case this could only be done at disproportionate cost.