Whitemoor Prison: Disorders (Hansard, 20 July 1995)

§ The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Blatch)
My Lords, since January 1995 there have been eight acts of collective disorder, eight serious assaults and a number of individual protests which include the so-called dirty protests.

§ The Earl of Longford
My Lords, the noble Baroness has been fairly economical in her statement of the truth.

Noble Lords
Oh!

§ The Earl of Longford
My Lords, I am sorry. I was repeating the obvious. However, I should be surprised if any noble Lord has visited Whitemoor Prison more recently than me; I have visited the place many times. Does the noble Baroness realise that the staff now face great difficulties in Whitemoor Prison? I again welcome the advent of the new Home Office Minister responsible for prisons, as I did yesterday. Will the noble Baroness persuade the new Minister for prisons that the Government should abandon their hostility to the Prison Officers' Association and seek some understanding with that body?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, I do not know whether the noble Earl suggests that I have somehow concealed part of the Answer. I have given an absolutely straightforward, truthful answer to his Question.

Noble Lords
Hear, hear!

§ Baroness Blatch
If I may say so, some of the incidents have been protests against new measures and a tightening up of the regime in response to the recommendation in the Woodcock Report.

§ Lord Hylton
My Lords, will the Minister draw the attention of her right honourable friend to the great sensitivity of certain protests by a small number of prisoners? Will the Home Office maintain the closest possible liaison with the Northern Ireland Office on this matter?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, I do not think that I need to remind either my right honourable friend the Home Secretary or my right honourable friend the Prime Minister about understanding the sensitivity of Northern Ireland or keeping the closest possible liaison.

§ Lord Harris of Greenwich
My Lords, although all of us want the peace process in Northern Ireland to succeed, is the noble Baroness aware that we find the dirty protest campaign by a limited number of prisoners at Whitemoor Prison entirely unacceptable? We very much hope that there is no question of the Government giving in to blackmail of that character.

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, I am happy to give that assurance. First, I believe that it is absolutely right that all prisoners are treated equally in these matters. The prisoners referred to in the noble Earl's Question are serving a punishment at this moment. They are given a daily opportunity to clean their cells, which so far they have refused. If, at the end of serving this punishment, they are given another opportunity to clean their cells and they refuse, they will receive further punishment.

§ Lord Campbell of Alloway
My Lords, does the Minister find it all strange that the charge should have been made of hostility on the part of the Home Secretary towards the Prison Officers' Association when to many of us who have been reading the papers for some time past the boot could appear to be on the other foot?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, what we want to do, and what my right honourable friend the Home Secretary wants to do, is to support prison officers in their very difficult job. I believe that responding positively to the Woodcock Report is helping prison officers to manage some very difficult people in a more effective and efficient way.

§ Lord Dean of Beswick
My Lords, bearing in mind what the Minister said, are any points of substance between the authorities and the Prison Officers' Association operating against the good running of the prison? If so, would it not be better for the Government quickly to resolve the issue with the Prison Officers' Association in everyone's interest?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, there is a very real policy of open access to my right honourable friend the Home Secretary and to the Minister responsible for prisons to discuss any outstanding matters. We wish to do all we can to support prison officers in the very difficult job they have to do.

§ The Earl of Longford
My Lords, will the noble Baroness consent to visit the prison before the autumn when I shall be able to put down another Question? Would she discover one prison officer who has one good word to say for "Howardism"?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, I think that that remark was offensive. Whitemoor Prison is a local prison to me, and I have visited it.