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Written question asked by Neil Gerrard (Labour) on Tuesday, 2 March 2010, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 4 March 2010. It was answered by Maria Eagle (Labour) on Tuesday, 9 March 2010 on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.

Prisons: Mobile Phones

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many illicit mobile telephones with or without SIM cards detected in prisons in England and Wales were forwarded to the National Dog Technology Supply Group in the latest period for which figures are available; and what estimate he has made of the number of such telephones detected and not forwarded.
Answer

The Government are committed to reducing the number of mobile phones in prisons. We have already strengthened the law through the Offender Management Act 2007, which made it an offence with a penalty of up to two years' imprisonment to bring a mobile phone or component into a prison. We are also taking forward legislation through the Crime and Security Bill to criminalise the possession of devices, including mobile telephones within a prison without authorisation.Prisons in England and Wales are instructed to send mobile phones and SIM cards found to a central unit and it is from this unit's records that this answer is based. The following table shows the total number of mobile phones and SIM cards that have been interrogated over the last 12 months.The figures contained in the table have been drawn from administrative data systems. Although care is taken when processing data, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. These data are not subject to audit.The figures understate the actual number of finds, because they do not include items retained by the police for evidential purposes and phones not submitted for other reasons. It is not always appropriate to send phones to the central unit and some phones sent are not interrogated. These have not been included in these figures. NOMS is putting in place new procedures to improve the accuracy of these statistics.Tackling mobile phones in prison presents substantial and increasing technological challenges, and .while the numbers of phones found clearly indicates the scale of the challenge, it is also a reflection of prisons' increasing success in finding them and better reporting. The following table shows the number of mobile phones and SIM cards that have been received from each of the prisons over the last 12 months.

Mobile phones and SIM cards submitted to central unit, March 2009 to February 2010
Mobile SIM
2009
March 304 323
Apr 363 357
May 353 377
June 407 396
July 376 425
August 476 393
September 355 345
October 386 373
November 399 337
December 350 325
2010
January 430 423
February 459 479
Total 4658 4553
Note:
Each mobile phone and SIM card is counted as a separate item.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
507 c247-9W; 320859
Session
2009-10
Subjects
Prisons Mobile phones
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk