Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Timpson on 3 March (HL5169), what is the difference between a prisoner being "removed from association" and being "kept in solitary confinement".

Removal from association for the purpose of segregation can occur for a number of reasons including for the maintenance of the good order and discipline of a prison; to protect the safety of those within a prison; for a prisoner’s own interests (i.e. due to risk from others); pending adjudication or as a punishment of cellular confinement following adjudication.

Whilst segregated prisoners are removed from association, they are individually risk assessed to enable access to as full a regime as possible. The use of segregation is governed by Prison Service Order 1700, which provides guidance to ensure it is used appropriately, and only where necessary.

The United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, often known as the Mandela Rules, define solitary confinement as “the confinement of prisoners for 22 hours or more a day without meaningful human contact”. Prisons in England and Wales do not have a solitary confinement procedure.

Statistics on incidents of segregation over the past 25 years could not be obtained without incurring disproportionate cost.