§ Ms CorstonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many strip searches have been carried out in England and Wales in the last five years; and for what purposes strip searches are carried out.
§ 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 A. J. Butler to Ms Jean Corston, dated 19 January 1994:
The Home Secretary has asked me, in the absence of the Director General from the office, to reply to your recent Question about strip searching.
Prisons are not required to maintain statistics of the number of strip searches carried out. Strip searching is a routine security measure, carried out under the provisions of Rule 39 of the Prisons Rules 1964, to which all prisoners are subject. It enables prison officers to detect small items of contraband, such as drugs or a weapon, which may be concealed about the person and which might not be discovered in an ordinary rub-down search. The prospect of being strip-searched also acts as a deterrent to concealing such items.