Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of prisoners were tested for covid-19 (a) following reception to the custodial estate, (b) following a transfer between custodial facilities and (c) before being released from prison during May 2020.

Data on prisoner receptions, transfers and releases for the requested period are not yet available. As such, we do not hold the specific information requested. The requested data are a subset of Offender Management Quarterly Statistics due for future publication in October 2020.

We can confirm the total number prisoners who have tested positive for Covid-19, which was 482 as of Friday, 5 June. Prisoner tests are conducted on symptomatic individuals on site. The testing capacity and availability can vary between establishments, depending on local circumstances at the time.