Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to sections six and seven of Report on an unannounced inspection of HMP Wormwood Scrubs by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, published on 9 September 2021, what steps he is taking to help ensure that progress is made against the recommendations made in that report.

The Governor of HMP Wormwood Scrubs and Prison Group Director for London Prisons have received and reviewed the report from the HMIP inspection from 7 to 17 June 2021.

There were 42 recommendations made on this inspection and this included 4 repeat recommendations from the last inspection in 2019. The Governor and his team have carried out a detailed review of the recommendations and are preparing their draft action plan to submit to the Prison Group Director for sign off this week. The action plan will provide responses to each recommendation and will identify the work that will be taken to address them.

It should be noted that some of the recommendations relate to COVID measures that have been implemented in prisons during the pandemic and we will naturally expect to see progress against these as regimes are opened up again in line with our recovery planning. For example, this will apply to recommendations regarding time out of cell, library attendance, staff contact with prisoners and the education provision.