HC Deb 19 December 1997 vol 303 c370W
Mr. McNamara

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on how many times Brian McHugh has been strip searched while on remand in HMP Belmarsh. [20336]

Ms Quin

[holding answer 16 December 1997]: It is not possible to provide accurate figures on the number of times Brian McHugh has been strip searched whilst on remand at Belmarsh Prison. As a High Risk prisoner, Mr. McHugh is subject to a searching policy appropriate to his security category. In particular, he will be strip searched before and after visits, on entry to and exit from the prison and on entry to and exit from the court. These routine strip searches are not recorded since they are a mandatory requirement of Prison Service security policy.

Mr. Cox

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many strip-searches have taken place in each of the London prisons since 1 January. [21379]

Ms Quin

[holding answer 17 December 1997]: This information is not available since prisons do not keep records of all strip searches. However, the Prison Service is reviewing searching and I have asked them to make recommendations on the monitoring of strip searches.