§ Mr. Bob RussellTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what action he has taken in the past three months to install more safe cells for remand prisoners. [137714]
§ Mr. BoatengThe Prison Service has developed a safer cell design, which provides protection for those at risk of self-harm. Since 1996, a total of 185 cells have been installed to this "improved cell" standard. 1,088 cells in the new prisons at Forest Bank and Ashfield—Design, Construction, Management and Finance (DCMF) prisons—reflect aspects of the new design requirements.
A strategy to introduce safer cell design features will be developed as part of a revised suicide prevention policy. There have been no improved cells installed since the Minister of State, my hon. Friend the Member for Hornsey and Wood Green (Mrs. Roche), referred in an Adjournment debate to plans to include them in new houseblocks and prisons, 7 July 2000, Official Report, column 603. But the Prison Service has confirmed its intention to incorporate the safer cell designed features into some or all of the cells in new houseblocks being built in establishments. Two new DCMF prisons under construction at Dovegate and Rye Hill will provide 1,353 cells reflecting aspects of the new design requirement.