Jo Stevens – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jo Stevens on 2016-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department has taken as a result of the HM Chief Inspector of Prisons’ report on HM Prison Rochester, published in September 2015; and if he will make a statement.

Andrew Selous

HM Inspectorate of Prisons’ (HMIP) report on HMP Rochester was published on 13 January this year.

Rochester prison faces a significant challenge from new psychoactive substances, which the Governor and his staff are determined to tackle. They have already put in place additional security measures, along with measures to increase awareness of substance misuse issues and extend support to overcome it. Progress has also been made since this inspection to improve safety and purposeful activity with more prisoners engaged in high quality work and training opportunities.

The Governor will use the recommendations in this report to drive further improvements over the coming months. An action plan responding to all the recommendations in the report will be published at the following link in due course: http://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprisons/inspections/

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