Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak and lockdown on trends in the level of average hours of contact time with family members per week through (a) face-to-face, (b) telephone and (c) video contact for those in (i) adult male, (ii) adult female and (ii) youth custody.

While we do not collate national data on hours of family contact, we absolutely recognise the importance of family contact for those in custody in line with the recommendations of Lord Farmer’s Reviews. This is why, following the necessary suspension of prison visits in March in response to Covid-19 in order to keep prisoners, their families and staff safe, we introduced a range of measures to minimise the impacts. This included introducing over 1,200 secure mobile PIN phone handsets which are being used to contact family and friends, bolstered support for the Prisoner’s Families Helpline and introduced secure video calls which are currently operating in over 100 prisons across England and Wales.

We have reintroduced face-to-face visits in line with the National Framework for Prison Regimes and Services with prisons commencing when it was safe to do so in a Covid-secure manner and will continue to expand visits capacity in line with Public Health advice and monitoring of local circumstances.

Currently, up to two adults and two children are permitted to visit for a minimum of 45 minutes in prisons where it is safe to do so. Guidance on visits protocols for each prison, including steps we are taking to keep visitors safe, is published on GOV.UK at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/visit-someone-in-prison-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic.

This sets out differences in the adult and youth estates, but otherwise this applies for visits to all categories of prisoner. We aim to continue to expand visit arrangements as part of further relaxations to prison regimes, as it is safe to do so, and in line with public health advice.