Prisons: Coronavirus

(asked on 19th March 2020) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice, of 18 March 2020, Official Report, column 335WH, what plans he has to cancel education provision in prisons during the covid-19 outbreak.


Answered by
Lucy Frazer Portrait
Lucy Frazer
Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
This question was answered on 26th March 2020

In line with the latest Government advice, as of 24 March all non-essential activities in prisons involving groups of people should be stopped. This includes social visits, education, non-essential work, association, communal dining, periods of mass prisoner movement, religious services and access to the gymnasium.

In order to boost staff availability part of contingency planning may include the need to ask staff directly employed by HMPPS to work in a different place and potentially do different tasks, this includes redeploying operationally trained staff currently working in headquarters back into prisons. We are working closely with Trade Union colleagues to ensure that there is a suitable framework that provides clear guidance in respect of what would be an appropriate range of tasks, this will be fully risk assessed before staff are asked to perform the tasks. The decisions on this will be made by Governors at establishments based on local needs.

Reticulating Splines