§ Mr. BoswellTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what arrangements he is making to ensure back-up of record keeping within the Prison Estate in the event of fire or other cause of destruction of files and nominal rolls. [38451]
§ Beverley Hughes[holding answer 28 February 2002]: Paper records relating to individual prisoners are kept in prisons, headquarters and the Prison Service Registry. Back up of manual files is not considered viable, 47W instead reliance is placed on prevention techniques to safeguard the integrity of records from fire and other environmental threats.
Electronic prisoner records are stored on the Prison Service inmate system at each establishment with overnight back up to the headquarters system. The Prison Service headquarters computer records are backed up daily and are stored at a secure off-site location. Establishments computer records are backed-up daily and stored in fireproof safes and held securely remotely from the computer they relate to.