Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the balance between benefit and risk of permitting prisoners to have access to steel strung guitars in their cells.

Following feedback from prison Governors, we have made some minor adjustments to the property prisoners are allowed to have under the revised Incentives and Earned Privileges (IEP) framework, including metal guitar strings. Governors were notified on 15 July 2014 that, with immediate effect, it was open to them to include full metal guitar strings on their local facilities lists. This allows eligible prisoners to purchase them for use on acoustic guitars kept in-cell.

Full metal strings are, as with the nylon and metal coiled strings which were already permitted, available by application only, issued on a one-for-one basis, and subject to local risk assessment. As with the nylon and metal coiled strings, Governors can make them available to prisoners on the Standard and Enhanced levels of the IEP framework.