§ 7. Mr. James Gray (North Wiltshire)What plans he has to increase the number of televisions available to prisoners. [53514]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. George Howarth)We have made arrangements to extend the pilot in-cell television schemes introduced by the previous Administration in the 11 light of the Woolf report. Televisions will be installed in 80 establishments over the next three months as part of the Prison Service's incentives and earned privileges scheme.
§ Mr. GrayI thank the Minister for that answer, although the House and the country will be disturbed to hear it. Does the Minister agree that television in cells should be earned as a privilege as a result of good behaviour and should not be provided as of right? Will the hon. Gentleman tell the House how much the new scheme is costing? Would it be better to use the money not for in-cell television but for out-of-cell activities such as education and training?
§ Mr. HowarthI think that the hon. Gentleman does not understand the scheme. The answer to the second part of his question is that the scheme will be broadly self-financing. Prisoners will be expected to pay towards the cost of the televisions.
As for the first part of the hon. Gentleman's question, the scheme was advocated by Lord Justice Woolf and it was piloted under at least three Home Secretaries under a Conservative Government. Indeed, they did not see any reason to suspend those pilots, and we have taken that process to its logical conclusion.
I wonder whether the hon. Gentleman would agree with the hon. Member for Ryedale (Mr. Greenway), who sits on the Opposition Front Bench? On 27 March 1997, the hon. Gentleman said:
What we are saying is that television cells should not be an automatic right but should be something earned by good behaviour.That is precisely what we are doing, so perhaps the hon. Member for North Wiltshire (Mr. Gray) thinks that it is a sensible scheme after all.