HC Deb 02 February 2000 vol 343 cc593-4W
Mr. Maclean

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list those prisons in which the WRVS deliver services, and the nature of the services. [107580]

Mr. Boateng

The invaluable support which the Women's Royal Voluntary Service (WRVS) offers to the Prison Service covers a large part of the prison estate with around a hundred prisons benefiting from the work of WRVS volunteers. The services provided by the WRVS include the provision of supervision for children's visits to parents in prisons; the running of prison visitors' centres and their tea bars; and the development of toy libraries for visiting children. In view of the differing needs of prisons, the development of partnerships with the WRVS is undertaken by individual establishments. Detailed information about the use of volunteers in prisons is not available centrally, however, a survey of all prisons is being undertaken with a view to establishing more specific information about their use of volunteers.

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