Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to Prison Security Investment Programme: X-ray Body Scanners Ad Hoc Management Information, published on 14 October 2021, what assessment he has made of the reasons for (a) the decrease in the positive scan rate from 13.3% to 10.1% and (b) the increase in the inconclusive scan rate from 2.3% to 4.8%; and what plans he has for the data contained in that release to be incorporated into the finds data published in the HMPPS Annual Digest in future.

Data received from the use of X-ray body scanners is in its infancy. It is currently not possible to identify trends in data as the equipment has not been implemented for long enough, and we therefore need to assess the data itself before trying to identify trends.

A project has commenced to identify if it is possible to link the finds of illicit items data with the indications of illicit items data produced from the X-ray body scanners. The first stage of this project has been completed which was to move the reporting of the data to the Performance Hub within SOCT, providing consistency of reporting. The second stage will scope the resource required to link the data.