Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the review of Islamist extremism in prisons, probation and youth justice, what separation units were recommended by that review; which types of separation unit were established; how many of those units are in operational use; and in which prisons those units were established.

Following the publication of Ian Acheson’s 2016 report, the Government committed to establish Separation Centres which are designed to hold the most subversive extremist prisoners, and to safeguard the vulnerable from their malicious ideology.

Across the prison estate there is one unit in operational use and a further two units operationally prepared for use, with the capacity to hold 28 individuals in total. These are contained within HMP Frankland, HMP Woodhill and HMP Full Sutton, which are High Security Prisons.

We take the threat posed by terrorist offenders very seriously. In the three and a half years since the report, we have implemented a much wider range of measures to strengthen our work in this sector. This includes the creation a single joint Home Office HMPPS extremism unit to oversee the delivery of all counter terrorism work in prison and probation.