Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of prisoners had telephone contact with (a) drug and alcohol abuse, (b) additional mental health, (c) employment, (d) education and training, (e) resettlement preparation and (f) other types of support worker during the week of 20 May 2020.

Information relating to the proportion of prisoners’ telephone contact to supports workers could only be obtained at disproportionate cost as this would require contacting and collating information from each prison establishment across the prison estate.

We understand the importance of these support services in ensuring the well-being of prisoners, and their rehabilitation and temporary measures are in place for prisoners to maintain contact with their families via the PIN phone system. However, these handsets are unable to accept incoming calls, including those from authorised support workers.