§ Mr. Simsasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners are being held in police cells; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. HurdNine hundred and ten on 2 November.
The lifting of industrial action in certain prisons in south east England last week was welcome. The police and prison services are now working hard to clear prisoners from police cells. That involves moving a large number of prisoners around the country and will take about a fortnight to complete.
It is now operationally sensible to hand back Rollestone camp on Salisbury plain for military use. The use of the camp, which was among the package of measures I announced on 16 July, provided a measure of relief until the greater effects of the change in the remission rules were felt in late August. It has made a useful contribution to that end, accommodating more than 400 prisoners since it opened, of which the overwhelming majority were category C sentenced prisoners.
Later industrial action taken by the Prison Officers' Association at certain prisons in the south east created a different situation. It resulted in a rapid build up of remand prisoners in police cells although space existed within the prisons concerned. Although a number of carefully selected prisoners awaiting trial have been accommodated in Rollestone camp it is not suitable for use wholly as a remand establishment. It is a long way from the courts and the dormitory accommodation is not right from the security point of view for most prisoners who have been refused bail and are normally put in category B. Rollestone has had to be staffed entirely by the prison service and the staff concerned could be better deployed elsewhere.
With the suspension of industrial action and with many establishments changing to "fresh start" working, the staff at Rollestone can now play a more effective part by returning to the permanent prison system. It was always the intention that the camp should be returned to military use at about this time. The possibility will remain to reopening it if the need arises.
This assessment of operational need is not affected by the proposed ballot of POA members.