Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many prisoners have been tested for COVID-19 (1) in each of the last five weeks, and (2) in total up to 20 May.
NHS England and Improvement is responsible for commissioning healthcare in prisons and are, therefore, responsible for testing for Covid-19. As such, we do not hold this data on prisoner testing.
Covid-19 testing is ongoing in prisons and is being conducted by internal or external healthcare practitioners on symptomatic prisoners on site. The testing capacity is dependent on local commissioning services, therefore the numbers of those tested varies by establishment. Prisoners that require hospital care are being transferred to hospital and may also be tested there.