Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that prisoners with mobility impairments can access appropriate mobility aids, including wheelchairs, within the prison estate.

NHS England commissions prison health care services into every prison in England to the equivalence of the community, to include range, access and quality of service. Access to specialist consultants and referrals into specialised support is available in all prisons; this includes access to allied health professionals and speech and language services as well as physiotherapy.

HM Prison and Probation Service enables access to all healthcare appointments, internal and external to the prison. The responsibility for social care support which this patient cohort may require due to the progressive nature of neuromuscular conditions is the responsibility of local authorities. The responsibility for reasonable adjustments lies with HM Prison and Probation Service rather than NHS England, and the Ministry of Justice recognises that the age of the prison estate presents challenges. In addition to making reasonable adjustments in older prisons, new-build prisons include accessible cells, low mobility cells, and lift access in all buildings.