§ Mr. Elystan Morganasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisons and remand centres, respectively, in the United Kingdom have facilities for providing an appropriate Welsh speaking prison officer to be present at a prisoner's visit where the conversation is in Welsh.
§ Mr. Carlisle:In England and Wales on 3rd May there were Welsh speaking members of the staff at:
- 30 prisons for men, two of which have remand centres attached,
- one prison for women, and
- three remand centres, one for men and two for both men and women.
§ Mr. Elystan Morganasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether facilities are provided in every prison and remand centre in England and Wales to cater for supervision by a prison officer of a prisoner's visit wherein any main language other than English is the medium of conversation; and how many visits have since 1st January, 1972, been refused on this ground.
§ Mr. Carlisle:The answer to the first part of the Question is "No ". When no prison officer speaking the language in question is 'available to supervise a visit, 231W visitors and inmates able to do so are required to condut their conversation in English. On two occasions since 1st January, 1972, inmates or visitors have been unwilling to accept this requirement.