Prisons (Hansard, 21 January 1992)

§ Mr. Cox
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if privately run prisons will take prison inmates who are on rule 43.

§ Mrs. Rumbold
Yes.

§ Mr. Cox
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if the same prison rules that exist in state run prisons will apply to privately run prisons.

§ Mrs. Rumbold
Yes, the substance of the rules will largely remain the same. Some changes will however be necessary to reflect the different terminologies in use in the two systems and the different circumstances, such as the division of a governor's duties between the director and the controller of a contracted-out prison.

§ Mr. Cox
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department who will appoint boards of visitors of privately run prisons; whom they will be responsible to in making observations on the running of such prisons; and if he will make a statement.

§ Mrs. Rumbold
As in the case of other boards of visitors, members of boards of visitors of privately run prisons will be appointed by the Home Secretary under section 6(2) of the Prison Act 1952 and will be required to make an annual report to him under prison rule 97. They will have the same right of access to him to make comments and observations as boards of visitors in state-run prisons.