Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average number of days was that a prisoner was held in HM Prison Belmarsh after being categorised as Category D before being moved to another prison in the latest period for which figures are available.

The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) policy on prisoner categorisation is set out in Prison Service Instruction 40/11 (Categorisation and Re-categorisation of adult male offenders). Policy requires that all adult male prisoners are assigned a security category within four working days of the prison receiving the information required for the assessment.

Information on the average number of days that a Category D prisoner is held in Belmarsh pending allocation to a Category D prison is not held centrally or routinely collated so could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Allocation will, in most cases, take longer than the categorisation process as it is based on a more thorough assessment of individual prisoner risks and sentence management needs. This must be completed before a prisoner is transferred to open conditions. It is not unusual for prisoners who have been recategorised to a lower category to be held in a prison of a higher security category pending further assessment; or, for example, where there is need to complete medical treatment or courses.