We continually assess and utilise the appropriate means of communication to maintain operational security.

A full evaluation of the £100 Security Investment Programme, aimed to reduce crime in prison including reducing smuggling of drugs, was published on 5 September 2024 and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/security-investment-programme-evaluation.

Airport-style enhanced gate security, comprising of metal detectors and X-ray baggage scanners, is used in 54 high-risk prison sites (both private and public sector), enabling routine searching of prison officers. In addition, local security strategies allow for routine and random rub-down searches of prison officers and other staff upon entry to, or within, prisons.

This year, we are investing over £40 million in physical security across 34 prisons to further prevent contraband entering prisons.

The House of Commons may suspend a Parliamentary pass temporarily pending the outcome of a criminal or disciplinary investigation. When an investigation is concluded and serious misconduct found against an individual, or a criminal conviction made involving a violent or sexual offence, then the individual’s pass is withdrawn. This response covers only passes that have been permanently withdrawn, as opposed to temporarily suspended.

As the House of Commons is not the direct employer of all passholders, information about disciplinary investigations and grounds for dismissal will not automatically be passed to Parliament for all passholders. This response therefore covers only employees of the House of Commons and Joint Departments, former Members of the House of Commons, and Members of the House of Commons who have been convicted of a violent or sexual offence and subject to recall, and any additional cases where the relevant information is shared with the House of Commons Administration. Equivalent data for the House of Lords Administration has not been included as it is a separate organisation.

The total number of passes withdrawn for security or serious misconduct since 5 July 2024 is five.

A full evaluation has been undertaken of the £100 million Security Investment Programme (SIP), whose aim was to help strengthen security and reduce crime in prisons. The findings of the evaluation have been published and can be found at the following: Security Investment Programme Evaluation - GOV.UK.

No further changes are planned to those that have been detailed previously.

Work is underway to begin the transition of sites from armed guarding to physical security measures. On current planning, the first sites will transition during Summer 2025, with all sites set to complete by Summer 2027.

The Government’s £100m Security Investment Programme, aimed at reducing the conveyance of illicit items such as drugs, was completed in March 2022.

This investment delivered 75 additional X-ray body scanners resulting in full coverage across the closed adult male estate. As of October 2023, we have recorded 46,925 positive indications, helping to tackle the smuggling of drugs and other illicit items into prisons.

The investment also funded Enhanced Gate Security at 42 high-risk sites, enhancing our routine searching of staff and visitors. Over 140 new staff were recruited into the Counter-Corruption Unit through the Security Investment Programme. This includes regional Prevent teams dedicated to building staff resilience through training, awareness raising and individual support, as well as 20 Police Investigators dedicated to investigating corruption within HMPPS.

As part of this investment, we are undertaking a full evaluation for the Security Investment Programme. The evaluation explores whether the programme has achieved its intended outcomes, how the programme has been delivered, whether it has been delivered as intended and to identify factors which further strengthen its effectiveness.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to Question 9446 on 22 January 2024 to the hon. Member for Romford (Andrew Rosindell).

I continue to engage with my Ministerial colleagues on the Government’s important legislative program, including the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill, also known as Martyn’s Law.

The pre-legislative scrutiny of the bill provided important feedback which I have been carefully considering, Ahead of introduction to Parliament, the Government will launch a public consultation on the Standard Tier ensuring the Bill strikes the right balance between public protection and avoiding undue burdens on smaller premises.

This data is only kept for seven days. Seven MPs have not taken their seats. The data held at the time of the search showed that two had accessed the estate during the 7-day period covered, each on one occasion.

Preventing contraband such as drugs into prisons via the gate, reception and post is a key priority of my department. Despite challenges to operational delivery during the pandemic, we are delivering on our commitment for safer and more secure prisons including through the £100 million investment in prison security through the Security Investment Programme (SIP).

The evaluation of the impact of SIP is still in its early stages and we will report indicative findings in Spring 2022 and final findings in Spring 2023. Although formal evaluation is in its early stages, we do know that within its first year, the SIP has had multiple successes, achieving the following:

• The installation of 69 X-ray body scanners, with over 9000 positive indications. This has included contraband being retrieved, for example in one case 10.5g of cocaine with an estimated prison value of £4000 was recovered.

• The roll out of Enhanced Gate Security (EGS), replicating the measures used in airport screening, resulting in hundreds of illicit items being prevented from entering prisons.

I refer the Hon Member to the answer given to the Rt. Hon Member for Leicester East; UIN 244020 on the 24th April 2019.

I struggled to hear the hon. Gentleman owing to some noises off. As he knows, and as he knows I know, the electoral system in Northern Ireland is devolved. I am sure that my new ministerial colleagues at the Northern Ireland Office will be taking his concerns very seriously and working with the devolved Administration, where appropriate, to look into them.

My Department has regular discussions with both the Home Office and the FCO on a range of matters in relation to the 2016 UEFA European Football Championships taking place in France this summer. Departments are in contact with the relevant football associations, and fans attending the tournament will be encouraged to follow the Government's official travel advice.

There are long-established and effective working relationships between the police and intelligence agencies of the UK and Ireland to mitigate threats in both countries. The UK Government takes protecting our border security very seriously and there is a high level of co-operation and on-going work with the Irish Government strengthening the external border of the Common Travel Area.

On 21 December, Officials from the British Embassy in Bogota raised human rights and protection issues with the national Ombudsman who also explained the role the Ombudsman's Office will play in post-agreement in Colombia.

The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) employs a range of technological aids to assist in searching including: hand held detectors, portals and Body Orifice Security Scanners, which can detect metallic items concealed internally. X-ray machines are used in most prisons to screen baggage and goods entering prisons but are not used for searching people and there are presently no plans to introduce the technology for this purpose in prisons in England and Wales.

It is anticipated that there will be around 3,600 mutual aid officers from England, Wales and Scotland deployed to assist the Police Service of Northern Ireland during the G8 summit. At the request of the PSNI, the MOD will be helping to provide a safe and secure G8 summit through the provision of logistical support. The military involvement in the G8 summit is a routine feature of events such as this and will be similar to support provided to the 2005 Gleneagles summit.

The Government consulted on a code of practice for the use of security scanner technology. The code addresses issues including health, privacy and data protection and requires airports to put suitable safeguards in place.

All security scanners in the UK use automatic threat recognition software—meaning that no images are viewed by human reviewers. All scanners in the UK use millimetre wave technology. Safety studies have concluded that there are no known health effects from the use of this technology.

The deployment of security scanners was undertaken in response to the attack on Northwest flight 253 to Detroit on Christmas day 2009. The device used in this attack had been constructed with the aim of making detection by existing screening methods extremely difficult. Security scanners are a further measure that helps to detect concealed devices such as that used in the Detroit incident. We believe they provide the best assistance to aviation security staff in response to this threat. For security reasons it is not possible to provide more detail about the alternatives considered.

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question. We are aware that such individuals fund their activities by a number of illegal means, and there has to be a question mark over them, whether they are used by criminal organisations or by paramilitary organisations. All such activities are totally and absolutely unsupportable. We have the full backing of the communities. We are talking about a tiny number of people who are not widely supported, and the way to beat them is for the people in the communities on the ground to work with the police.