§ Charles HendryTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to his answer of 1 March 2004,Official Report,column 722W, on prison education, what security limits internet access for prisoners; and what circumstances permit 31 prisoners to have regular access to the internet. [160225]
§ Paul Goggins[holding answer 9 March 2004]:The Prison Service has a duty to protect the public. Integral to this is the restriction of prisoner communications. This is necessary in order to prevent escapes, disorder in prisons, the intimidation of witnesses, or making unwanted or inappropriate contact with victims of crime and/or children, and the conducting of criminal activity from within jails. To allow prisoners generally to have access to the internet would undermine security.
1591WThe prisoners who have regular access to the internet have been granted this for the particular requirements of the work at which they are employed. Their allocation to this work is subject to an individual risk assessment. They sign agreements about their use of the internet. They are monitored closely by an information technology (IT) manager and the websites they visit are controlled and subject to audit.
Although no prisoners have access to the internet for education there are schemes provided by the Department for Education and Skills in prisons that seek to give prisoners training in internet IT skills, without open connection to the internet itself.