Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether efforts to eliminate rats, mice and cockroaches in all prisons in England and Wales have been successful, and if not, in how many prisons they still present serious problems.

We undertake routine planned pest control regimes as part of our existing Facilities Management contracts. Where we encounter higher than normal level of pest infestations, we put in place targeted control measures to eliminate/reduce the particular pests.

We do not hold a list of the current number of prisons where we have serious infestations. Any/all infestations are dealt with as quickly as possible in order to ensure that we do not have high numbers of sites with serious problems.