Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Annual Report of the Independent Monitoring Board at HMP/YOI Norwich, published in July 2021, what assessment he has made of trends in the number of visits allocated to IMBs over the last five years.

Independent Monitoring Boards have always been encouraged to submit a monthly return of visits completed and also to state the total number of visits in annual reports. Analysis of visits across all IMBs in 2019 established there were inconsistencies and the Management Board directed a working group of members to explore a fair, transparent allocation of visits to establishments. This group met throughout 2019 and the Management Board accepted their proposals for an allocation of visits that reflected size, type of prison and complexity. This was shared with boards who had the opportunity to submit business cases if they felt it was insufficient. Norwich’s request was partially upheld with extra visits being allocated. The total number of visits allocated across all boards has increased since 2019 when this work was completed ensuring fairness and transparency.