Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether routine covid-19 tests will be required in (a) public and (b) contracted-out custodial estates where a high proportion of staff and prisoners have been vaccinated.

The safety of our staff and those under our supervision remains a top priority, and testing is an important element of our overall set of measures to limit the importation of infection into and between prisons. We have therefore been working closely with the Department of Health and Social Care, the NHS, and health authority colleagues in England and Wales since last summer on providing access to Covid-19 tests in both publicly and privately-run prisons.

Over the course of the pandemic we have expanded the use of testing based on public health recommendations, and we now offer testing routinely to all staff and those prisoners who are moving into or within the prison estate. We also conduct mass testing as part of a multi-agency response to outbreaks. We are constantly seeking to harness the benefits that new testing technologies might be able to offer, as soon as they become available, to strengthen our defences against the virus further.

Whilst testing is ultimately voluntary, we continue to strongly encourage the participation of all those who are eligible. The weekly average uptake of PCR testing in March by those eligible was:

We have been delivering this testing within a dynamic context, making use of existing resources wherever possible, and through collaboratively working with a wide range of partners including local health teams. It has therefore not been possible to determine a current costed model of operation.

As we have done throughout the pandemic, we will continue to work closely with PHE and PHW to determine the appropriate testing regime in prisons, including any changes due to the effect of vaccination.