Parkhurst Prison (Geophones) (Hansard, 2 March 1995)

§ Mr. Michael Forsyth

Responsibility for this matter has been delegated to the Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.

Letter from Derek Lewis to Mr. Chris Mullin, dated 2 March 1995: The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Question about the number of occasions since 1979 when the Governors of Parkhurst have requested the installation of geophones and what action had been taken in each instance. Disproportionate cost would be incurred to fully answer your Question. The issue was first raised in 1987, but at this stage, it was felt that geophones should not be installed until the major redevelopment programme at the prison had been completed. Mr. Marriott, who became the Governor of Parkhurst prison in 1990, made a number of requests for geophones to be installed around the internal perimeter fence (geophones were already in place around the Special Secure Unit). At the time of the escape in January, geophones were being installed around the perimeter fence at Parkhurst. The Prison Service decided not to install geophones in the prison earlier because, as Ministers made clear at the time, the building work would have severely limited their effectiveness. It was those building works which dictated the timing of the installation. While building work, itself related to security, was going, on, it did not make sense to install geophones because they could not work effectively in those circumstances. Installation of geophones around the perimeter fence will be completed in April 1995.