Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many offenders were given an Out of Court Disposal Order in the past three years, broken down by offence type.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Out of Court Resolutions (OOCRs) can divert low-level offenders into effective rehabilitative activity which prevents the escalation of offending and can provide quicker resolutions for victims. As outlined in the response to the Independent Review of Criminal Courts, we are working with the Home Office and the police to increase the use and effectiveness of OOCRs, including a commitment to urgently examine the underpinning framework.

The Ministry of Justice publishes some data on OOCRs, including headline figures and breakdowns of cautions and penalty notices for disorder by offence type in the OOCRs Data tool that can be downloaded at the following link: Criminal justice statistics quarterly - GOV.UK

Information concerning offence type breakdowns of community resolutions and cannabis/khat warnings is published by the Home Office. Crime outcomes in England and Wales statistics - GOV.UK

Question to the Wales Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what discussions he has had with the Welsh Government on devolving justice policy to the Welsh Government, what specific policy issues these discussions have covered, and whether the UK Government intends to devolve responsibility for courts and prisons to the Welsh Government.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Secretary of State for Wales

I recently met with the Welsh Government’s Cabinet Minister for Government Effectiveness and the Constitution to discuss our respective priorities, which included the Welsh Government’s position on justice. This is one example of the regular meetings I hold with Welsh Ministers to drive forward constructive joint working between our two governments.

The current devolution settlement enables Wales to benefit from the resources, expertise and resilience of a shared England and Wales justice system, while allowing for approaches that reflect Welsh circumstances.

The Prime Minister and I have been clear that we will give careful consideration to calls for the devolution of further powers. What matters is what works, and our guiding principle is whether further devolution would lead to better outcomes for the people of Wales.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, (a) how many prisoners were released as part of the early release scheme on 1 October 2026, (b) how many of these prisoners were fitted with a tag prior to their release and (c) how many of these prisoners have been fitted with a tag to date.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The Ministry of Justice routinely publishes Official Statistics on electronic monitoring and on prisoner releases, as part of the Electronic Monitoring Statistics Quarterly and Offender Management Statistics Quarterly publications. The requested information forms a subset of the data underpinning total release statistics and monitoring statistics intended for future publication and, therefore, cannot be disclosed.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison establishments provide free packed lunches to visiting children, what the free packed lunches normally contain, how many free packed lunches are provided every year, and how much they cost to supply.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

It would not be possible to obtain the requested data for all prisons in England and Wales without incurring disproportionate cost.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many restricted patients were released from hospital into the community in 2025 by (i) index offence group and (ii) index offences of (a) murder, (b) manslaughter, (c) rape and (d) sexual assault; and how many of those were conditionally discharged.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The specific information requested could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many of the prisoners released as part of the early release scheme on 1 October 2026 have since returned to prison.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

This Government inherited a prisons system days from collapse. We had no choice but to take decisive action to stop our prisons overflowing and keep the public safe. Our landmark Sentencing Act 2026 will now deliver a more sustainable solution to the prison capacity crisis we inherited, including through the progression model, which will help ensure there are always enough prison places for the courts to be able to send people to custody.

We have interpreted your question as relating to prisoners who have returned to custody through recall following release under the progression model on 1 October 2026.

We regularly publish data on releases and recall to prison via our Accredited Official Statistics publication Offender Management Statistics Quarterly (available at: Offender management statistics quarterly - GOV.UK).

The requested information on returns to custody following releases under the progression model on 1 October cannot be provided because it would form a subset of the data that underpins future versions of these Official Statistics on total releases and recalls.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Minister for Justice, whether the Prime Minister plans to devolve power over prisons and justice policy to the Welsh Government; and what discussions he has had with the Welsh Government on this subject.

Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

The Prime Minister has been clear that the Government will continue to engage with the Welsh Government and other partners on matters of devolution and the Government’s Rewiring the State Delivery Plan will set this out further. Effective partnership working is essential to improving outcomes for victims, reducing reoffending and building safer communities, which is underpinned by the significant benefits that flow from the single England and Wales legal jurisdiction. The Government wants to ensure the shared legislative framework, common sentencing powers and judicial arrangements, national operational standards and the ability to maintain consistency are sustained, while drawing on expertise and resources across both nations and delivering for the people of Wales.

UK Government ministers and officials have regular discussions with the Welsh Government and other Governments of the Nations on a range of matters, including devolution.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether those imprisoned under the new criminal offences related to pornography introduced by the Crime and Policing Act 2026 will be eligible for early release under the Earned Progression Model.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The new offences relating to pornography in the Crime and Policy Act 2026 are not yet in force. They will come into force on 6 November 2026.

Rape and certain child sexual offences are excluded from the Progression Model as well as unlawful killing and indecent assault.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners across the prison estate are currently assessed as (a) standard risk and (b) high risk under the Cell Sharing Risk Assessment on the latest date for which figures are available, broken down by establishment.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The information requested is not collated centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Annual Statement on Prison Capacity, published on 29 January 2026, which programmes of a) construction, b) refurbishment and c) maintenance programmes that had been due to deliver prison places by October 2026 have been delayed; by how long; and how many places each delay accounts for by programme and establishment.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

As set out in the Annual Statement published in January 2026, we are on track to deliver 14,000 additional places by 2031. Programme delivery timelines are subject to change as external factors can affect large-scale infrastructure projects. The supply projections set out in the Annual Statement include contingency to account for shifts in delivery timelines. The next Annual Statement will be published in due course and will contain updated demand and supply projections.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, for each different surname held by at least one prisoner, how many individual prisoners hold that surname across the prison estate, and likewise for each different first name.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

To provide accurate data in response to this request, it would be necessary to undertake an extensive verification exercise, which could not be done without incurring disproportionate cost.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many victims have (a) been contacted to confirm that their perpetrator will be released from prison early as a result of the Sentencing Act 2026, and (b) been contacted to confirm that their perpetrator will not be released from prison early as a result of the changes made to the Sentencing Act 2026.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The Sentencing Act 2026 contains provisions which change the proportion of a standard determinate sentence which must be served in prison before the offender serving such a sentence is released automatically on licence (“the progression model”). Eligible victims who have opted into the Probation Service Victim Contact Scheme, where the offender is serving a standard determinate sentence, have been informed of the commencement of the legislation.

According to information held on the Probation Service Victim Case Management System, as of 9 July 2026, 8,711 letters had been issued to victims engaged with the Victim Contact Scheme to inform them of the legislative changes to prisoner release arrangements under the Sentencing Act 2026. This figure should not be interpreted as the number of offenders affected by the changes. Not all offenders will necessarily receive an earlier release date, not all eligible victims choose to participate in the Victim Contact Scheme, and some offenders have multiple victims linked to their case.

On 30 August 2026, the Prime Minister announced further exclusions from the progression model. In addition to rape and certain child sexual offences previously announced, these exclusions included all forms of manslaughter, causing death by dangerous driving, causing or allowing the death of a child and indecent assault offences.

As a result of these changes, sentence calculations are being reviewed and, where necessary, recalculated. It is therefore not currently possible to provide the number of victims who have been contacted to confirm that their perpetrator will be released from prison early as a result of the Sentencing Act 2026, or who have been contacted to confirm that their perpetrator will not be released from prison early as a result of the changes made to the Sentencing Act 2026.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to his letter to the hon. Member for West Suffolk, dated 10 September 2026, what the evidential basis is for the statement that there will be more people in prison than ever before by the end of this Parliament.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The Annual Statement on Prison Capacity showed that the adult prison population was projected to reach between 89,500 and 94,300 by November 2029, with a central estimate of 91,700. Even the lower end of this range is above the highest published prison population figure of 88,893, recorded on 9 September 2024.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, in reference to Question 27585, on how many occasions, over the most recent available 12-month period, the recorded religion of a prisoner has been changed or added in Prison-NOMIS for any reason, broken down by religion pair and establishment.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

To provide accurate data in response to this request, it would be necessary to undertake an extensive verification exercise, which could not be done without incurring disproportionate cost.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the answer of 2 March 2026 to Question 116101, whether each offender in the table is counted once only in each calendar year; whether the previous-conviction band is measured at the offender’s last qualifying conviction in that year; and how many offenders included for 2024 were convicted of theft from a shop more than once during that year.

Answered by Jake Richards - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

With reference to Question 116101, each offender in the table is counted once in each calendar year and all previous convictions are counted as at the offender’s last qualifying conviction for each year.

The number of offenders who were convicted of theft from a shop more than once during 2024 are provided in the attached table.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many victims (a) have been contacted to inform them that their perpetrator will be released from prison early in the first ten tranches of the early release scheme following the new offence exclusions; and (b) were previously contacted to inform them that their perpetrator could be released from prison early as part of the early release scheme but have since been contacted to advise that they will not be following the new offence exclusions.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The Sentencing Act 2026 contains provisions which change the proportion of a standard determinate sentence which must be served in prison before the offender serving such a sentence is released automatically on licence (“the progression model”). Eligible victims who have opted into the Probation Service Victim Contact Scheme, where the offender is serving a standard determinate sentence, were informed of the commencement of the legislation. They have subsequently been updated on whether the release date for the offender in their case has changed or remained the same.

According to information held on the Probation Service Victim Case Management System, as of 13 October 2026, 8,283 letters had been issued to victims engaged with the Victim Contact Scheme to inform them of either a change in the release date of an offender in their case or to confirm there had been no change to a release date.

9,737 letters were issued to victims engaged with the Victim Contact Scheme to inform them of the legislative changes to prisoner release arrangements under the Sentencing Act 2026. This figure should not be interpreted as the number of offenders affected by the changes as not all eligible victims choose to participate in the Victim Contact Scheme, and some offenders have multiple victims linked to their case. The remaining letters updating victims to the outcome of sentence recalculations are scheduled to be sent out by Friday 16 October. Any discrepancy between the original number of letters sent out and the follow up letters can be put down to victims no longer engaging and the change to the implementation date where some offenders were released at their original dates in September. Figures are also subject to amendment following a full data check has taken place once all letters have been sent.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps are being taken to ensure that UK military aid is delivered rapidly and without restrictive conditions that limit Ukraine’s ability to defend itself and deter future attacks.

Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)

The UK MOD has streamlined rapid procurement processes and expanded teams to procure and deliver military equipment at pace to meet Ukraine's urgent operational needs.

The UK has been recognised for its expertise in this area by international partners and administers the International Fund for Ukraine (IFU), which uses rapid procurement processes to deliver critical capabilities to Ukraine.

We have provided Ukraine with military aid on the understanding that it will be used in accordance with International Humanitarian Law. We liaise on a daily basis with the Ukrainian Government, and they are clear that equipment provided by the UK is intended for the defence of Ukraine.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will provide a breakdown of costs incurred by the HMPPS Disparities Unit in each of the last three years, including (a) staff numbers and (b) staff salaries.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The HMPPS Disparities Unit employed an average of 20 full-time-equivalent staff during the year to 31 March 2026. Total costs for the Unit including salaries, employer pension contributions, employer National Insurance contributions and other costs were £1.7 million.

As this area of work underwent changes in scope and structure during the specified period, comparable figures for earlier years are not available.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Victim Support: Offender Release Helpline, if he will publish (a) the total cost of establishing it, (b) the number of staff employed to operate it, (c) the annual salary band of each of the staff employed to operate it, (d) the cost incurred to operate it to date, (e) the expected annual cost of operating it, and (f) how many victims have contacted the helpline to date.

Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

The Government is committed to ensuring that victims and others affected by offender release can access timely information, support and guidance when they need it. That is why the Ministry of Justice has commissioned Victim Support to deliver the Victim Support: Offender Release Helpline, a dedicated telephone and live chat service available across England and Wales.

The helpline provides a single point of contact for individuals affected by, or concerned they may be affected by, offender release. Specialist advisers can provide emotional support, practical guidance, safety planning, signposting and referrals to other services where appropriate. The service is also available to family members, carers, supporters, witnesses and professionals seeking information about available support.

Funding for the helpline forms part of the Government's wider £18.9 million package of support for victims affected by the Progression Model. Of this, £1.56 million has been allocated to the national helpline. The Helpline is delivered through a grant agreement with Victim Support and launched on 1 October 26. A final assured figure for expenditure to date is not yet available.

The grant is designed to provide Victim Support with the capacity and flexibility to deliver on specified outcomes and meet demand, rather than specifying the number of posts, salary bands or volume of calls. Management information relating to the delivery of the grant will be monitored by the Ministry of Justice throughout the lifetime of the agreement.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, which 48 frontline organisations will receive funding from the Legal Support Grant.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The Ministry of Justice appointed the Access to Justice Foundation to administer the new Legal Support Grant programme on its behalf. A full list of the 48 funded organisations can be accessed on their website – https://atjf.org.uk/grants/what-were-funding. This includes a diverse range of organisations including Citizens Advice services, Law Centres and community-based organisations.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will take steps to ensure Dr Rahmeh Aladwan is struck-off the medical register; and whether she has contacted the General Medical Council about Dr Rahmeh Aladwan.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

While it would not be appropriate to comment on any specific individuals, we commissioned Lord Mann’s review to root out the cancer of antisemitism and other forms of racism from our health service, and as well as implementing the recommendations from Lord Mann’s review that are for the Department and the National Health Service, we expect the General Medical Council to take the strongest possible action where the evidence demands it in relevant fitness to practise cases. The United Kingdom’s model of healthcare professional regulation is founded on the principle of regulators operating independently from the Government.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many cells, rooms or dormitories in the prison estate have a Certified Normal Accommodation of (a) one and a maximum capacity of one, (b) one and a maximum capacity of two, (c) two and a maximum capacity of two, (d) two and a maximum capacity of three, (e) three and a maximum capacity of three, or (f) three and a maximum capacity of four, broken down by establishment.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

HMPPS does not centrally record the reasons why a prison's in-use Certified Normal Accommodation (CNA) is lower than its baseline CNA, nor does it centrally hold information on when individual CNA places were taken out of use or are expected to return to use. This information will be held locally by individual prisons but collating it manually across the estate would incur disproportionate cost.

HMPPS does centrally record reasons for any changes to Operational Capacity, which is the total number of prisoners that a prison can hold, taking into account control, security and the proper operation of the planned regime. These data are not directly equivalent to places excluded from in-use CNA, but provide the closest centrally held measure. Information on Operational Capacity places out of use by establishment and reason is set out in the first attached table.

Please see attached data tables.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison places included in baseline Certified Normal Accommodation but excluded from in-use Certified Normal Accommodation, broken down by establishment and, where recorded, by section or wing thereof; with the recorded reason, date taken out of use, and expected date of return to use provided for each set of places for which these data are separately available.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

HMPPS does not centrally record the reasons why a prison's in-use Certified Normal Accommodation (CNA) is lower than its baseline CNA, nor does it centrally hold information on when individual CNA places were taken out of use or are expected to return to use. This information will be held locally by individual prisons but collating it manually across the estate would incur disproportionate cost.

HMPPS does centrally record reasons for any changes to Operational Capacity, which is the total number of prisoners that a prison can hold, taking into account control, security and the proper operation of the planned regime. These data are not directly equivalent to places excluded from in-use CNA, but provide the closest centrally held measure. Information on Operational Capacity places out of use by establishment and reason is set out in the first attached table.

Please see attached data tables.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will publish legal advice she has received in connection with the local government reorganisation programme.

Answered by Jim McMahon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

It is a longstanding principle that the Government does not publish or comment on legal advice.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the guidance on immigration bail regarding electronic monitoring, if she will list the medical conditions that have been used in the past six months that have resulted in individuals not being fitted with an electronic monitoring tag while on immigration bail.

Answered by Anna Turley - Minister of State (Home Office)

Details of instances where electronic monitoring was not applied due to medical conditions are not published.

The Immigration Bail policy sets out the considerations which govern the application, or not, of electronic monitoring as a condition of bail. That guidance sets out examples of medical conditions which ought to be considered as part of a case-by-case assessment. The guidance provides examples, not an exhaustive or absolute series of conditions.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many of prisoners released under the second tranche of the early release scheme on 13 October 2026 have been fitted with a tag.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The Ministry of Justice routinely publishes Official Statistics on electronic monitoring and on prisoner releases, as part of the Electronic Monitoring Statistics Quarterly and Offender Management Statistics Quarterly publications.

The requested information forms a subset of the data underpinning total release statistics and monitoring statistics intended for future publication and, therefore, cannot be disclosed.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the press release of 26 August 2026 entitled World-first crackdown to restrict offenders’ freedom and give it back to victims, how many people are subject to a restriction zone in England and Wales.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The Ministry of Justice routinely publishes Official Statistics on electronic monitoring and on prisoner releases, as part of the Electronic Monitoring Statistics Quarterly and Offender Management Statistics Quarterly publications.

The requested information forms a subset of the data underpinning total release statistics and monitoring statistics intended for future publication and, therefore, cannot be disclosed.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the answer to Question 30100, how many of the operational capacity places recorded as out of use for maintenance were unavailable, in each establishment, because of (a) the Fire Safety Improvement Programme, (b) damp, mould or water leaks, (c) infestation by bedbugs, cockroaches or rodents, (d) damage caused by prisoners, (e) demolition, or (f) other reasons, which should be specified ad hoc.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

HMPPS does not centrally record the number of prison cells currently out of use due to bedbug infestations. Governors must manage the availability of places on a daily basis, ensuring that the prison can accommodate the number of prisoners certified as its Operational Capacity. Provided that Operational Capacity is not affected, taking individual cells out of use for reactive maintenance (including treatment for bed bug infestations) is at the discretion of Governors. Information on taking individual cells out of use for bedbug treatment programmes is held locally by individual prisons, and collating it across the prison estate would incur disproportionate cost.

Where bedbug infestations require a reduction in Operational Capacity, HMPPS does record this centrally. As at 19 October, 2026, there were two places removed from operational capacity due to the presence of bedbugs.

Please see the attached table, which provides the number of places as at 19 October, 2026 that have been temporarily removed from operational capacity for the reasons requested. Following from the response to PQ 30100, an additional 93 places have been taken out of use.

The Government inherited a prison capacity crisis after places increased by just 500 in 14 years, but we are pulling every lever available to make sure the country never runs out of spaces and we can keep dangerous offenders locked up.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison cells are currently unusable due to the presence of bedbugs.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

HMPPS does not centrally record the number of prison cells currently out of use due to bedbug infestations. Governors must manage the availability of places on a daily basis, ensuring that the prison can accommodate the number of prisoners certified as its Operational Capacity. Provided that Operational Capacity is not affected, taking individual cells out of use for reactive maintenance (including treatment for bed bug infestations) is at the discretion of Governors. Information on taking individual cells out of use for bedbug treatment programmes is held locally by individual prisons, and collating it across the prison estate would incur disproportionate cost.

Where bedbug infestations require a reduction in Operational Capacity, HMPPS does record this centrally. As at 19 October, 2026, there were two places removed from operational capacity due to the presence of bedbugs.

Please see the attached table, which provides the number of places as at 19 October, 2026 that have been temporarily removed from operational capacity for the reasons requested. Following from the response to PQ 30100, an additional 93 places have been taken out of use.

The Government inherited a prison capacity crisis after places increased by just 500 in 14 years, but we are pulling every lever available to make sure the country never runs out of spaces and we can keep dangerous offenders locked up.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many cells at each of (a) HMP Five Wells, (b) HMP Fosse Way and (c) HMP Millsike with a Certified Normal Accommodation of one and a maximum capacity of two held two prisoners (i) at the most recent date for which data are available, (ii) six months ago, and (iii) twelve months ago.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Figures relating to the level of crowding in prisons are published annually in the HMPPS annual digest as annual averages rather than point in time figures. The data in Chapter 5, table 5.5 shows the average number of prisoners sharing a cell with a Certified Normal Accommodation of one and a maximum capacity of two. Figures for the three prisons requested in the 12 months ending March 2026 are provided below:

Information beyond March 2026 cannot be provided at this time, as its disclosure would risk revealing data underpinning a forthcoming release of these Official Statistics, scheduled for publication in July 2027.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, on how many separate occasions in the past five years British police forces have ceded jurisdiction to US military investigators in cases where US military personnel have been accused of committing serious crimes on British soil.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

This data is not held centrally.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the HMP Stocken Families and Significant Others Strategy, how many goodie bags they give out every month, what the goodie bags contain, and how much has been spent by HMP Stockten on providing goodie bags in the past two years.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Snack bags (“Goodie bags”) are not given out free of charge. The bags referred to in HMP Stocken’s Families and Significant Others Strategy are for families to buy for prisoners to collect at the end of the visit.

There are two options available, one containing simple snack products such as cans of soft drinks, crisps, biscuits, cake bars and the other is a heathier option choice such as fruit juices and dried fruit and nuts, all of the same type of snack products that are available to prisoners through the canteen system.