Report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner - March 2015
Points of Note
Prisons
I have continued to provide non-statutory oversight of the interception of
communications in prisons in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. I do not
currently provide any oversight for prisons in Scotland. It would be preferable, in
my view, if prison oversight was formalised as a statutory function.
In 2014 our office conducted 100 prison inspections. 492 recommendations
emanated from these inspections, an average of 5 recommendations for each
prison.
Last year I made the point that the numerous policy documents governing the
interception of prisoners communications were fragmented, overlapping and
contradictory in places and that this made it difficult for the prisons themselves to
understand the requirements fully and for our inspectors to conduct the oversight.
I am disappointed that there has not been any progress on these matters. I
reiterate that NOMS must get to grips with these issues and put in place clear and
defined policy and risk assessment documents for the interception of prisoners’
communications. Our experience shows that the prisons are trying extremely hard
to comply with the various policies in this area, but they are in need of clear direction
and better quality policy.
79% of the recommendations fell into one key category – procedures for the
monitoring of prisoners telephone calls and mail. The prison staff my inspectors
meet during the inspections have a willingness to carry out their work to a good
standard but recent cutbacks and benchmarking have led to an erosion of specialised
roles and this work is now often undertaken by generalised staff who do not have
the required experience and knowledge.
Just over 80% of the prisons inspected in 2014 had fully achieved all or the majority
of the recommendations emanating from their previous inspection. The overall
proportion of prisons achieving a good level of compliance has remained fairly
static in the last 3 years. However, it should be noted that comparisons with previous
years are difficult because the prisons being inspected are not the same.
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