Health Services: Prisons

(asked on 5th October 2026) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve coordination between prison healthcare providers and NHS hospitals where prisoners are awaiting secondary care.


Answered by
Baroness Merron Portrait
Baroness Merron
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
This question was answered on 16th October 2026

As a signatory to the National Partnership Agreement for Health and Social Care for people in contact with the criminal justice system, the Department of Health and Social Care is committed to working with the Ministry of Justice, His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service, NHS England and the UK Health Security Agency to ensure safe, legal, decent and effective care is provided for all prisoners.

NHS England commissions prison health care services into every prison in England to the equivalence of the community. Every prison will have a health needs assessment undertaken on a regular basis which is then used to locally determine the health needs and requirements of that prison’s population.

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