HC Deb 27 January 1989 vol 145 cc771-3W
Mr. Ashley

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the answer to the right hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent, South,Official Report, 15 November 1988, column 551, how his Department monitors the standard of prison kitchen inspections; whose advice is sought on whether or not they are at a standard equivalent to those carried out by local authority environmental health officers; who carries out the inspections of prison kitchens; what are their qualifications, experience and expertise in food hygiene; how frequent are inspections; in what circumstances the advice of local authority officers is sought; how often advice has been sought; and in how many cases it was to take preventive action rather than to cope with a food poisoning or other problem.

Mr. Douglas Hogg

Home Office health and safety officers and supply and transport branch headquarters catering managers carry out formal hygiene inspections of prison catering facilities. Each establishment receives at least an annual inspection by one of these officers. Some are inspected more regularly. All the inspecting officers have received appropriate training and hold the diploma in food hygiene of the Royal Institute of Public Health and Hygiene. All the inspecting catering managers have extensive knowledge and experience of the food hygiene problems associated with large-scale catering operations. The health and safety officers are specialist full-time personnel who have wide-ranging background training and experience in health and safety matters. Inspections are carried out to a predetermined format which ensures that all aspects of hygiene are checked and assessed.

A number of random validation inspections are carried out by an environmental health officer from the Department of Health. These inspections assist in monitoring the efficacy of the main inspection arrangements. Local authority environmental health officers are called in to provide assistance and expertise in tracing the source of an outbreak of food poisoning. This recognises the need for additional special skills and experience under these circumstances. Prison medical officers are also authorised to seek their advice when it is considered to be appropriate.

More generally, guidance has recently been issued to governors and medical officers encouraging them to establish a working relationship with local authority environmental health officers. This may include visits to prisons in an informal advisory capacity. Records of the number of visits by local authority officers to prisons, and the purposes of those visits, are not held centrally.

Mr. Ashley

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the answer to the right hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent, South,Official Report, 15 November 1988, column 551, what progress has been made regarding an improvement in the standards of the 13 of the 21 prison kitchens inspected by the Institution of Environmental Health Officers which had standards of hygiene so low as to warrant prosecution were it riot for Crown immunity.

Mr. Douglas Hogg

A further exchange of letters has taken place between the prison department and the Institution of Environmental Health Officers. Relevant background details of the institution's survey have not yet been released to the prison department. A considered response to the institution's survey will be made as soon as relevant background material is made available.

Mr. Ashley

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether food prepared in the normal prison kitchen is served in prison hospitals.

Mr. Douglas Hogg

Yes.

Mr. Ashley

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the current budget for maintaining and improving hygiene in prison kitchens; and what has been the budget in each of the last five years.

Mr. Douglas Hogg

The cost of maintaining and improving hygiene in prison kitchens is subsumed within the total running costs of the prison service. It is not practicable to extract information on the level of funding dedicated specifically to hygiene in prison kitchens.