§ Mr. CoxTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department who is responsible for the provision of foreign language leaflets in prisons in England and Wales; and if he will list the languages in which such leaflets are provided. [145160]
§ Mr. BoatengThe Prison Service Race Relations policy highlights the importance of prisons being aware of the needs of non-English speaking prisoners. To assist in meeting those needs, all prisons have copies of the Prisoner Information Books which provide information on all aspects of prison life for males, females and life sentenced prisoners. The books have been produced in partnership with the Prison Reform Trust and are available in 21 languages: Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Gujerati, Hindi, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Russian, Spanish, Tamil, Turkish, Urdu, Vietnamese and Welsh.
Prisoner Information Books are generally made available during the induction process and copies are held by all prison libraries. Many of those prisons which have large numbers of foreign national prisoners also provide translated versions of local information leaflets in languages relevant to their prisoner population. In some prisons, audio materials are also available.
Induction staff will be responsible for making prisoners aware of the Prisoner Information Books but thereafter the Race Relations Liaison Officer, or in a few cases a designated foreign nationals liaison officer, will be responsible for ensuring that non-English speaking prisoners have access to information in an appropriate form.