Pentonville Prison

(asked on 2nd March 2017) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the fulfilment of the duty of care to ensure the safety of prisoners and staff at HMP Pentonville, since 1 January 2013.


Answered by
 Portrait
Lord Keen of Elie
This question was answered on 16th March 2017

Safety is an ongoing key priority for this Government. Extra funding for Violence Reduction has been provided to address issues of violence and to allow for improvements to be made in the prison environment. Our recently published White Paper on prison reform announced a major shake-up of the prison system to help make prisons places of safety and reform.

Since January 2013 the fulfilment of the duty of care to ensure the safety of prisoners and staff at HMP Pentonville has been assessed by a number of means. The London and Thames Valley Deputy Director has frequently visited the prison to assess and report progress; National audits of Safer Custody and Security have occurred annually; Independent Monitoring Board reports have been produced annually; and HM Inspectorate of Prisons has visited in January 2015 and January 2017.

The prison has delivered improvements in security, with metal detection devices being used for all movement off the wings and improved mobile phone detectors utilised across the prison. Patrol dog cover has also been introduced into the establishment which is continuing until further notice.

The window replacement programme began on the 5 December 2016. This has focused on the areas of greatest vulnerability to items being thrown through these windows, additionally the priority areas of netting have been fixed in all areas around the prison.

There is extensive CCTV coverage and HMP Pentonville have recently improved the way these cameras are monitored by increasing the number of staff monitoring them.

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