Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many urgent notifications have been issued by the prison inspectorate in each year from 2019 to 2023 inclusive.

Since 2019 there have been 11 Urgent Notifications issued. Details of each Urgent Notification and the Lord Chancellor’s response and action plan can be found on gov.uk.

The Chief Inspector of Prisons, Charlie Taylor, alerted the Lord Chancellor of his concerns at HMP Woodhill on 1 September 2023. In line with the protocol between HM Inspectorate of Prisons and the Ministry of Justice, the Lord Chancellor responded to Charlie Taylor on 29 September 2023, setting out his response and action plan. We have commenced work on all 45 actions in the initial action plan, 10 are now complete and we continue to work on the remaining 35.