HC Deb 17 March 1997 vol 292 cc409-10W
Mr. McNamara

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer of 28 February,Official Report, column 428, if he will take steps to ensure that video-recording equipment is positioned in such a way as to demonstrate that it is not being used. [19939]

Miss Widdecombe

Responsibility 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. Pearson to Mr. Kevin McNamara, dated 17 March 1997: The Home Secretary has asked me, in the absence of the Director General from the office, to reply to your recent Question on the use of video recording equipment. It is not anticipated that equipment of the kind that could potentially be used for video recording medical consultations with prisoners would ever be a permanent feature of a room within a prison. As noted in the Answer given on 28 February, permission to video record prisoners undergoing medical consultation would only exceptionally be given, and then only with the consent and knowledge of the individual prisoners concerned and awareness that a video recorder was in use.