Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much has been paid in forfeiture because of the Prison Service's use of barbed and razor wire in each of the last four years.

No fines have been paid to the EU or any other organisation because of HM Prison Service’s use of barbed and razor wire in the last four years. Furthermore, there have been no infraction proceedings at the European Court of Justice and no findings against the UK in the European Court of Human Rights about this issue in that time period.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) provides razor wire and barbed wire as part of construction and refurbishment projects on its custodial estate. It is deployed most often at the top of perimeter fences and fences which form partitions within the grounds of prisons. It forms one of a number of security measures which prevent prisoners scaling fences either to breach the perimeter or to enter hazardous and prohibited areas of a prison

The MoJ works with the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) to ensure that its proposed use would not present a health or safety hazard to prisoners, members of NOMS staff, visitors to a prison or members of the public.