Frankland

The preparation of food for religious beliefs often challenges an already limited daily prison meal allowance. When will the Minister raise the allowance, in line with the rise in the cost of food?

I appreciate your concerns around food budgets and the challenges of being able to prepare food that adheres to religious beliefs, particularly with an increase in the cost of living. As the Board will be aware, all prison food budgets are determined locally by the Governor in Public Sector Prisons (or the Director in privately managed prisons) and kept under review as part of normal budget allocation planning. Prison Rules require that prisoners are provided with three meals a day that are varied, nutritious and meet the religious, cultural, and medical needs of all. The catering for religious festivals must also be equitable across the faiths. However, it is fair to say that certain specialist food types due to religion and beliefs are becoming more popular and requirements for such come at an inflated cost compared to other general food supplies. Locally at HMP Frankland, more ‘in-house’ cooking of items rather than ‘bought in’ items is the preferred choice to ensure price and nutritional value.

What can be done to replace and /or repair essential kitchen equipment, so that extra costs involved in preparing food do not occur?

The Facilities Management (FM) provider has engaged with their specialist subcontractor to deliver all essential repairs. The FM provider has acknowledged that historically, repairs have not been delivered within a timely manner and they are working closely with their subcontractor on a way forward to ensure essential kitchen equipment is repaired on time. In addition to this, the property team will continue to submit capital bids for the continual replacement of ageing catering equipment to support a reduction in future breakdowns.

The loss of working days for prisoners at HMP Frankland, due to ineffective heating, has been an issue reported on over a number of years in our annual reports. What are your plans to rectify this ongoing issue?

It is regrettable that heating the workshops continues to be an issue. Capital funding has been approved for replacement of some of the heating systems. This work is currently being costed by the FM provider with an aim to deliver before the end of the financial year. This will enable the prison to replace a minimum of two of the workshop heating systems and improve this long-standing situation. Future bids will be submitted to continue this upgrade to the buildings systems and improve the situation within the workshops. In the meantime, mobile/temporary heaters will operate in certain workshops, prisoners will be offered warm clothing, and the heating will now be switched on over the weekend to try and ensure required temperatures are maintained for the working week.

With the new band 6 dedicated neurodiversity support manager in position, when will there be an additional training programme to develop specialist wing staff to work with prisoners who have dementia and autism?