§ Mr. AshleyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make it his policy to encourage all prison governors to allow inspection by local authority environmental officers so that they can provide guidance on measures required to achieve hygiene standards similar to those in organisations and institutions not protected by Crown immunity from prosecution.
§ Mr. Douglas HoggThe prison service has its own internal arrangements for inspecting prison kitchens. Inspections are considered to be of a standard equivalent to those that would otherwise be carried out by local authority environmental health officers. The arrangements do not preclude calling on local environmental health officers for advice if necessary. More generally, prison medical officers are encouraged to establish a relationship with environmental health authorities and to invite local authority officers to visit prisons in an advisory capacity.
§ Mr. AshleyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if he will invite the Institution of Environmental Health Officers to give him the names of the prisons visited by members of the institution which had kitchens with standards of hygiene so low that they would warrant prosecution were it not for Crown immunity; and if he will arrange for a further joint inspection by his internal inspectors and those of the institute;
(2) when he received a copy of the report "Food Hygiene in H. M. Prisons" by the Institution of Environmental Health Officers; what response he made; and what action was taken regarding the finding that the kitchens of 13 of the 21 prisons inspected were found to be below the standard of the Food Hygiene (General) Regulations 1970.
§ Mr. Douglas HoggA letter has recently been sent to the institution requesting further details of the background to the survey and the names of prisons visited. A full response to the institution will be made after consideration of all the relevant material. A copy of the findings of the survey conducted by the institution was received in the prison department on 29 August 1988.
§ Mr. AshleyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will make it his policy to maintain hygiene conditions in prison kitchens at a level that would comply with the standards that have to be met by organisations and institutions which do not have Crown immunity from prosecution.
§ Mr. Douglas HoggOur policy remains that prison kitchens should meet the standards laid down in the Food Hygiene (General) Regulations 1970.