Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate his Department has made of the average number of hours in cells each day by (a) male and (b) female prisoners in the latest period for which information is available.

The information requested is not held. HMPPS does not currently collect or hold specific data on the amount of time prisoners spend out of their cell. We intend to develop a measure on time spent out of cell and are currently exploring options, including working with HMIP to understand the methodology used by the inspectorate to examine prisoner time out of cell during their inspections.

We do, however, currently publish information relating to the activities undertaken by prisoners while in custody. This includes the number of prisoners that have completed Accredited Programmes in custody, the number of hours worked in prison industries, and the number of prisoners released from prison on a temporary licence. Examples of published data on prisoner activity can be found via the following links;

https://data.justice.gov.uk/prisons/prison-reform

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/prison-and-probation-trusts-performance-statistics#prison-performance-statistics

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/offender-management-statistics-quarterly