Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the (a) effectiveness and (b) potential merits of expansion to other prisons under his jurisdiction of the Empty Spaces project developed by prisoners at Magilligan Prison in Northern Ireland.

Prisons are free to decide locally how they participate in Holocaust Memorial Day and Black History Month. Although chaplaincy teams locally may have marked the event in some way, there has been no national engagement regarding Interfaith Awareness Week. National Prison Radio promotes national support for local initiatives, and Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service also provides information to prisons via its staff networks to support prison staff in their participation in local events. We do not collect information centrally on the number of prisons which have held such events.

We have not evaluated the Empty Spaces project which, as it is being conducted in a prison in Northern Ireland, does not fall under our jurisdiction as we are responsible for Prisons in England and Wales.