Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent equality impact assessment he has undertaken on the application of the prison uniform policy to male and female prisoners.

In October 2018, following a comprehensive equality analysis, an interim policy change was introduced to ensure that both male and female convicted prisoners were subject to the same national policy on prison-issue clothing. This was confirmed in the Incentives Policy Framework launched on 13 January 2020. The Policy Framework requires all convicted prisoners to wear prison-issue clothing, unless the governor allows them to wear their own clothes as a privilege under their prison’s local incentive arrangements.