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Prisons: Coronavirus

Answer

As of the 14th July 132,266 connections through secure mobile PIN phones have been made. This number includes phone calls to approved telephone numbers, account check balances, failed calls and calls where they were connected to an engaged number and therefore disconnected. This number also excludes those calls made through existing in-cell telephones and secure PIN phones on prison landings.

Secure mobile phones were allocated on a region by region basis with operational decisions made as to where deployment of these phones was most effective. These decisions were made considering:

- whether in-cell telephones were already in place and so secure mobiles were not needed

- if the potential site had suitable mobile phone signal. Some sites, due to location and build of prison did not enable effective coverage to support mobile calls.

The following numbers of phones were initially deployed to each region across 65 sites:

Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Cheshire & Lancashire, Cumbria	120
Yorkshire	25
Tees & Wear	25
North Midlands	35
East Midlands	65
West Midlands	70
Avon & South Dorset	40
South Central	40
Devon & North Dorset	30
Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk & Hertfordshire, Essex and Suffolk	100
London	35
Kent, Surrey & Sussex	55
Long Term High Security	170
HMPPS Wales	90

Although all phone calls are monitored, we do not create reports on the number of calls on a person-by-person basis. Similarly, we do not routinely record how many times an individual makes a phone call. We have since increased the number of secure mobiles to nearly 1300.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

HL6927

Session

2019-21

Grouped for answer

Yes

Subjects

Families Disease control Prisoners Prisons Mobile phones Coronavirus

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk