§ Mr. Alex Carlileasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will institute a survey of sanitary facilities in Her Majesty's prisons, so as to ascertain how many prisoners are required to slop out as part of their prison routine.
§ Mr. HurdThe exact number of those having to slop out varies from day to day in accordance with fluctuations in the prison population, but is of the order of 26,000.306W Member on 11 May 1983. For information regarding operations before that date, I refer the hon. Member to the reply given to a question from the hon. Member for Barking of 28 July 1982 at c. 528. Since 28 April 1983 —the date of the last operation for which details were provided—there has been only one major joint operation in respect of which the information readily available is as follows: