Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many occasions did he (a) hold meetings with, (b) undertake written communications with and (c) telephone members of the Independent Monitoring Board for HMP Birmingham since 1 January 2018.

Since G4S took over the running of HMP Birmingham in 2011, a Controller’s team has been in place consisting of a Controller, a Deputy Controller, and an Assistant Controller. During that time, a total of five different members of staff have been employed in the above posts.

The Secretary of State visited HMP Birmingham personally, in May 2018 where he met with the Chair of the Independent Monitoring Board; the Senior Contract Manager for HMP Birmingham, who manages the Controller; and the Head of Custodial Contracts for HM Prison and Probation Service. I also responded to the Chair of the IMB in May 2018, acknowledging the concerns raised in relation to the prison, and visited HMP Birmingham personally, to follow up on their concerns in August 2018.