§ Mr. BlairTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners have died while being transported under Prison Service escort for each of the last five years.
§ Mr. Peter LloydResponsibility for this matter has been delegated to the director general of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from Derek Lewis to Mr. Tony Blair, dated 17 May 1993:
Deaths of prisoners under prison service escort
The Home Secretary has asked me to write to you directly 206W in reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the number of prisoners who have died while being transported under Prison Service escort in each of the last five years.
I am glad to say that in fact no prisoners have died since 1988 while under escort provided by the Prison Service. This excludes any cases in which prisoners who were already very seriously ill or injured (for example, due to an attempted suicide in the prison) may have died in an ambulance or other escort vehicle on the way to an outside hospital. Checking precisely how many deaths have occurred in these circumstances would require an extensive search of records and would be at disproportionate cost.
You will of course be aware of the case of Mr. Ernest Hogg who was found unconscious in a cellular van while under escort by Group Four Escort Services and who later died in hospital. We in the Prison Service deeply regret Mr. Hogg's tragic death and I have ordered a full inquiry into the circumstances. Of course a full public inquiry will also take place in due course in the form of the Coroner's inquest.