Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps Sodexo has taken to address allegations of drug use and violence within HM Prison Northumberland; and if she will make a statement.

The allegations made by BBC Panorama were extremely serious and were urgently investigated. In the White Paper published last November, the Secretary of State clearly set out that levels of violence and self-harm in our prisons are too high, which is why we are investing an extra £100m annually to support reform in the prison estate. As we implement the changes set out in the White Paper, we will ensure that these will work for private prisons wherever possible. We will also continue to engage with providers of private prisons on how the new approaches to working with prisoners could be implemented alongside other actions they might already be taking to improve safety.

These are long-standing issues which will not be resolved in weeks or months but we are determined to make our prisons places of safety and reform. We have robust processes in place to closely monitor and manage private contractors and will not hesitate to take action when standards fall short.

Recently, overall staffing at the prison has increased by 37 above the resource profile in Sodexo’s bid to operate the prison, this includes 20 additional Prison Custody Officers. Sodexo work with the police and, prior to the programme, purchased a Body Scanner to support the detection of illicit items.