Clause 11
Offender Management Bill
3:00 pm
Crispin Blunt (Whip, Whips; Reigate, Conservative)
I do not want to detain the Committee, but I would like some elucidation of the thinking behind this change to the law, particularly as I have two prisons in my constituency. From the explanatory notes, I understand the change to be that in contracted-out institutions—the prisons in my constituency are not contracted-out—prisoner custody officers will be allowed to invite prison visitors to strip themselves of all their clothes to see whether there is anything in the clothes or on the body. They will not, however, be allowed to carry out an intimate search, which is presumably a search of body cavities.
I would be grateful if the Minister were to explain the reasoning behind the provision. Will he give us some idea of offences that have been committed by visitors smuggling drugs and other items into prisons? What evidence does he have of behaviour in private prisons differing from that in Her Majesty’s prisons? Is there a concern that a lacuna exists, because he has not extended to contracted-out prisons the right of intimate searches?