Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the system for prisoner transfers between different categories of prison is effectively monitored.

Arrangements are already in place to ensure that progressive moves of prisoners between prisons are both appropriate, and carried out in as timely a fashion as possible. Transfers around the prison estate are managed on a case-by-case basis by the sending and receiving prisons so that prisoners are held in establishments that provide appropriate levels of security, are suitable for their gender, age and legal status, provide facilities to reduce their risk of reoffending and, wherever possible, at the lowest cost to the taxpayer.

Prisoners are moved to suitable establishments as part of their sentence plan, following re-categorisation in line with centrally produced guidance, where requested or where there is an operational need to do so. Enabling progressive transfers of prisoners is also subject to space in the appropriate part of the prison estate becoming available. The speed of transfers, therefore, reflects the availability of places in a particular location or of a particular type.

Further to my answer to Questions 165122 and 165123, answered on 23 July 2018, as the process of transferring prisoners between establishments is based on the individual requirements of each prisoner, there is no intention to begin centrally collecting specific data on the number of male and female prisoners who are awaiting transfers to other prisons.