Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-10-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many meetings (a) Ministers of her Department and (b) officials of HM Prison Service have had with drone manufacturers in each quarter of each of the last five years; and if she will make a statement.

Mr Sam Gyimah

Details of all ministerial meetings with external companies are published on gov.uk. Information on officials’ meetings is not held centrally.

We remain vigilant to all incidents involving drones and take the threat they pose to prison security very seriously. We have already introduced new legislation to further strengthen our powers, so that anyone found using a drone in an attempt to get contraband into prisons can be punished with a sentence of up to two years imprisonment. We take a zero tolerance approach to smuggling of contraband into prisons and work closely with the police and Crown Prosecution Service to ensure those caught are prosecuted.

A range of methods to counter the threat posed by drones are continuously being trialled and evaluated for their effectiveness across the prison estate.