§ Mr. Robert Atkinsasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what progress has been made in implementing the 73 recommendations made in Sir James Hennessy's report on the escape from Her Majesty's prison, Maze Cellular, on 25 September 1983.
§ Mr. PriorSince publication of the report 43 of the recommendations have been fully implemented and eight of the individual reviews recommended by Sir James Hennessy have been completed. Action to implement the remaining recommedations, including the completion of the remaining reviews, is continuing. Most of these will be complete by the end of 1984 though some, such as the new main gate complex which requires substantial construction work, will take longer.
I have decided on an alternative approach to that in the recommendation concerning dogs. Instead of establishing a separate dogs section at Her Majesty's prison, Maze Cellular, the number of dogs and handlers available from the joint section based at Maze compound has been increased and the arrangements for allocating dogs to each prison improved. The creation of separate sections would pose practical difficulties, and I am confident that the needs of both prisons can be adequately provided by those revised arrangements.