Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the effects of the ban on the receipt by prisoners in England and Wales of parcels containing for example books, underwear, clothing, stationery and Christmas presents.

There have always been controls on the sending of parcels into prisons; the revised Incentives and Earned Privileges (IEP) national policy framework has simply ensured greater consistency across the prison estate. We now have simple rules that allow prisoners a parcel of items when they first arrive in prison, and then only further items in exceptional circumstances. The restrictions were introduced to enhance existing security measures and to prevent the IEP policy framework from being undermined.

There is no longer a numerical limit on the amount of underwear that prisoners can have in possession; the amount they can have is subject only to overarching volumetric control limits.