§ Sir John Biggs-Davisonasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department for what reasons and in what circumstances male and female prisoners are strip-searched in Her Majesty's prisons; and what contribution such searches make to prison security.
§ Mr. MellorThe following information relates to prisons in England and Wales. Responsibility for prisons in Scotland and Northern Ireland rests with my right hon. Friends the Secretaries of State for Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Strip searching is a routine but essential security procedure whose purpose is to detect small items of 792W contraband, in particular weapons and drugs, which can be easily concealed about the body and cannot be detected by other methods of searching. The justification for this method of searching, distasteful though it is to staff and prisoners alike, is that staff do discover items such as drugs, razors, plastic knives sharpened into daggers, and scissors which would not otherwise be detected; and the knowledge that these searches take place undoubtedly has a deterrent effect.
Rule 39 of the prison rules 1964 provides that every prisoner, male and female and including those on remand, shall be searched on reception into prison and thereafter as the governor thinks necessary. Standing instructions provide that the search on reception should be a strip search, and other times at which prisoners may be strip searched include before and after court appearances, before and after visits, at the time of cell changes and during wing and cell searches.