Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to evaluate the potential merits of proposals to limit association within prison regimes to small groups (a) during and (b) after covid-19 recovery.

The functioning of prison regimes is pivotal to enabling prisoners to access offending behaviour programmes and education and for ensuring their essential needs, such as physical exercise and healthcare, are met.

During the pandemic, we have had to place restrictions on prison regimes to save lives and protect the NHS, guided by public health advice. As it becomes safe to do so, we will ease these restrictions, and we continue to review how regimes should operate currently and in the future.

In doing so, the Government is looking closely at the evidence, to build upon the lessons learned during the pandemic and review elements of the daily routine that can be adapted at a local level. Given the variation between different prisons, both in terms of their categorisation and their physical layout, regimes will continue to be tailored to take account of the particular circumstances of each prison.