Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, on how many occasions the Chief Inspector of Prisons has used the urgent notification protocol to alert him to a significant concern regarding a prison since 30 November 2017.

The new Urgent Notification process allows Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons to directly alert the Secretary of State if he has an urgent and significant concern about the performance of a prison. The Secretary of State will then publish his response and a plan of action within 28 days. Both the Chief Inspector’s letter and the Secretary of State’s response will be published.

Since its introduction on 30 November 2017, the Chief Inspector of Prisons has not triggered the Urgent Notification process.