§ Mr. McNamaraTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if he will give details of the number of body searches, cell searches and cell changes and strip searches carried out on each of the female category A prisoners being held at Her Majesty's prison, Winchester, in September and October 1988, indicating the number of times each person was searched, if any prison contraband, smuggled item or illegal correspondence was discovered in any search, indicating which items; in how many cases prisoners refused to be searched and had to be restrained while the search was being conducted; and what were the reasons for the search;
(2) if he will give details of the number of body searches, cell searches and cell changes and strip searches carried out on each of the female category A prisoners 1070W being held at Her Majesty's prison, Durham, monthly, since February 1969, indicating the number of times each person was searched, if any prison contraband, smuggled item or illegal correspondence was discovered in any search, indicating which items; in how many cases prisoners refused to be searched and had to be restrained while the search was being conducted; and what were the reasons for the search.
§ Mr. Peter LloydRecords are not kept of the occasions when rub down searching or "frisking" is carried out in prisons and it is not the practice to disclose detailed information about security arrangements such as that requested about the frequency of cell searches and cell changes.
Establishments are not required to record all strip searches. However, since August 1986 comprehensive records of strip searches are available in respect of category A women prisoners only, of whom there was one at Winchester prison between 27 September and 31 October. During that time the prisoner was strip searched on 30 occasions. On no occasion did the prisoner refuse to be strip searched. No unauthorised article was found.
There were four category A prisoners held at Durham between August 1986 and March 1987; three from April 1987 to September 1988 and four from October 1988 to date. They were strip searched on the following number of occasions:
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Prisoner A B C D E 1986 August 4 1 3 — 3 September 3 6 3 — 1 October 2 5 3 — 4 November 7 2 5 — 5 December 4 4 2 — 1 1987 January 6 2 5 — 2 February 2 7 3 — 2 March 5 2 4 — 3 April 3 2 4 — — May 7 5 3 — — June 2 5 3 — — July 2 3 1 — — August 3 3 2 — — September 3 4 4 — — October 2 4 3 — — November 3 3 2 — — December 5 7 5 — — 1988 January 3 3 3 — — February 1 1 2 — — March 3 4 3 — — April 5 5 2 — — May 3 1 3 — — June 4 2 4 — — July — 1 — — — August 5 2 5 — — September 2 7 4 — — October 3 6 2 1 — November 4 5 4 4 — December 4 6 3 4 — 1989 January 1 — 1 1 — February 5 2 1 2 — March 3 2 2 3 — April 1 5 4 4 — May 3 7 1 1 — June 1 1 2 5 — No unauthorised article was found. On no occasion did the prisoners refuse to be strip searched.
Strip searching is a routine security measure to which all inmates—male and female—are subject, both for its deterrent effort and as a means of discovering unauthorised articles.