Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government on how many occasions access to the prison library in accordance with PSI 45/2011 has been restricted due to lack of staff available to escort prisoners (1) in total, and (2) for each prison in England and Wales, in each of the last three years.

Prison libraries play a positive role in supporting rehabilitation and resettlement through offering a range of resources and activities, including literacy and reader development work. However, information about the average number and length of visits to prison libraries, and the extent to which prisoners had access to the library, is not held centrally and would need to be collated through enquiries at every prison. This would incur disproportionate cost.