PRISONERS: ACCESS TO SANITATION (Hansard, 2 February 1994)

Earl Ferrers

The target for the Prison Service for 1993/94 is to provide through the accelerated sanitation programme 24-hour access to sanitation in at least 4,700 existing prison places. In addition, a further 2,400 newly constructed and renovated places, which will have integral sanitation, are scheduled for completion in the year. Eighty-nine per cent. of prisoners currently have 24-hour access to sanitation. This compares with 82 per cent. in March 1993 and 46 per cent. in 1981.

By the end of 1994, more than 95 per cent. of prisoners should have access to sanitation at all time, a considerable achievement and one of the key measures of progress in providing decent conditions for all prisoners. The other main measure is the reduction of overcrowding and avoidance of the use of police cells. The percentage of prisoners sharing cells designed for one has been reduced from 38 per cent. in 1987–88 to 16 per cent. at the end of 1993. There has been no significant use of police cells since February 1993. These achievements have been possible as a result of the major prison building programme which has added over 18,000 new places since 1979.

In the face of the forecast increase in the prison population, resources are being directed to providing additional places and the amount of accommodation that it was planned to take out of use for refurbishment during the next two years has been reduced. Although this will preclude completion of the sanitation programme by December 1994, the alternative would have been a return to the prolonged use of police cells and an unacceptable level of overcrowding.

The Prison Service continues to give very high priority to completing the sanitation programme as soon as possible, within the constraints imposed by the prison population. It aims to complete the programme no later than February 1996, the date recommended by Lord Woolf in his report.