Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made on the effect of the implementation of the smoking ban in prisons on order and discipline in those prisons.

The Government remains fully committed to making all prisons smoke free. The decision to go smoke free in every prison is only taken after careful planning and preparation (Readiness Assessments); and the final decision is only taken when each prison has met stringent checks to ensure that it is safe to do so and all necessary healthcare support is available to help prisoners give up smoking.

Maintaining order and control in our prisons is our priority and this large-scale project has been actively managed under usual project management disciplines.