Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent information he holds on the number of states party to the European Convention on Human Rights whose prisons breach any term of that convention; and what recent assessment he has made of the effect of such breaches on the deportation of people from the UK to prisons in (a) EU and (b) non-EU countries.

I refer to the answer to PQ 3772 - the MoJ does not hold information on the number of states party to the European Convention on Human Rights whose prisons breach any term of the Convention. However, information on states party to the European Convention on Human Rights, whose prisons have caused them to be found to be in violation of the Convention by the European Court of Human Rights, can be found on the Court’s searchable database at:

http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/sites/eng/Pages/search.aspx#{%22documentcollectionid2%22:[%22GRANDCHAMBER%22,%22CHAMBER%22]}

Where the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that poor prison conditions in a state party to the Convention breach the requirements of the Convention, the government would seek to find a way to enable the transfer to take place through assurances or other measures to address that issue. We have not yet had to seek such an assurance nor have we refused a transfer based on the grounds that prison conditions breach article 3.