Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 24 November 2014 to Question 215057, whether his Department made an estimate of the cost to the Exchequer of the proposals in the press release entitled, Crackdown on violence in prisons before making that press release.

I refer to my reply of 24 November. The aim of the joint protocol between NOMS, the police and the CPS is to strengthen, rather than replace, existing policy and requirements on the reporting of crime committed in prison. It is not anticipated that a large number of additional crimes will be processed through the court as a result of the protocol. Rather, the protocol will be used to prioritise referrals of crime to the police to ensure that the Criminal Justice System can target those crimes causing most problems in prison, those committed by persistent or violent criminals or those who are part of organised crime groups.

As stated previously, the potential costs arising from the increased number of serious crimes that will now be dealt with by way of the Criminal Justice System rather than the prison disciplinary system will depend on a number of factors and it is the expectation that any additional costs will be covered through prioritising within existing Police and Departmental budgets for handling crime.