Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans her Department has for readmitting prisoners to HMP Dartmoor prison; what the estimated timescale for readmission is; and if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing the capacity of the prison.

The health and safety of prisoners and staff continues to be a top priority for His Majesty’s Prison & Probation Service. Following the temporary closure of HMP Dartmoor in August, we have been working with specialist radon experts to investigate and assess options to reduce levels of radon sufficiently to allow us to reopen the prison safely. While this process is ongoing, we are unable to provide an estimated timeline to return Dartmoor to its full operational capacity of around 680 places. We continue to work with Health and Safety experts to further our understanding of the impact that exposure levels could have on prisoners and staff.

If it is concluded that it is feasible and cost effective to return the prison to use, we will complete a full options assessment for the site, including the possibility of increasing the capacity of the prison from that at which it closed. In the meantime, we continue to work with HMP Dartmoor and the trade unions to manage the impact of the closure on staff. No staff have been made redundant.

We are in the process of redeploying staff, which for most will be to the neighbouring establishments HMP Exeter and HMP Channings Wood. We are ensuring they have access to the Department’s Employee Assistance Programme and are supported through the transition by their line managers.