Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to tackle the rise of prisoners using mobile phones to record and upload videos to social media platforms.

Under national policy prisoners can only access the internet in a supervised environment, and only for rehabilitative purposes. Prisoners cannot access or interact with social media whilst in custody.

We have a zero-tolerance approach to illicit mobile phones in prison which some prisoners may use to access social media. Our £100m Security Investment Programme (SIP), aimed at reducing crime in prisons including reducing the conveyance of illicit items such as drugs and mobile phones, was completed in March 2022. This investment delivered 75 additional X-ray body scanners resulting in full coverage across the adult closed male estate. As of October 2022, we had recorded 28,626 positive scans, preventing drugs and mobile phones from entering prisons. The SIP also funded the installation of a variety of detection and other mobile phone technologies across the estate, targeting those prisons presenting the highest risk of harm through illicit mobile phone use.

HMPPS’ Digital Media Investigations Unit (DMIU) have the capacity to forensically examine illicit mobile devices, and will investigate reported misuses of social media, working alongside social media sites to identify and stop unlawful activity. Where serious crimes are identified, including offences against children, the matter would be referred to police for consideration. The DMIU has strong working relationships with social media companies, including TikTok, and Meta, and work with them to improve how illegal prison-related content is identified and removed to avoid it impacting on victims, witnesses and members of the public of all ages.

Where possession of an illicit device is confirmed, or a direct link is found between a prisoner and social media content, cases may be referred to the police for further investigation and prisons can take further punitive action.