Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 12 June 2025 to Question 58502, how many prisons currently hold regular chess activity sessions.

The Ministry of Justice is aware of research that is in progress in relation to regular chess sessions across the prison estate. To date, no formal assessment has been made of any effect on re-offending.

As chess is not a structured physical activity, it is not included in the management information that is collected centrally. To determine how many prisons hold regular chess sessions, it would be necessary to consult each individual establishment, and this could not be done without incurring disproportionate cost.