Andrew Selous MP Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice 102 Petty France London SW1H 9AJ T 020 3334 3555 F 020 3334 3669 E [email protected] www.gov.uk/moj To all Hon. and Rt. Hon. Members of Parliament House of Commons London SW1A 0AA 17 November 2014 Dear Colleague, PRISON COMMUNICATIONS The Justice Secretary in his oral statement on Tuesday 11 November about Prison Communications said that he had given instructions for changes to be made about telephone calls from prisoners to their constituency Members of Parliament. He announced changes which are designed to ensure that for now all calls to Members' constituency or Parliamentary office numbers will be treated as confidential. On the same day I wrote to all Members following the Justice Secretary’s statement to ask for any further telephone numbers which they or their offices use to be provided to us, to enable them to be registered correctly. May I reiterate that I would be grateful if you could provide the relevant telephone numbers by email to [email protected] by Friday 5 December 2014. In addition to this I am enclosing, as an annex, the terms of reference for the independent investigation the Justice Secretary has asked the Chief Inspector of Prisons, Nick Hardwick, to conduct. As indicated in his oral statement the Justice Secretary will make a further statement to the House once Nick Hardwick has reported. I am also providing the House with the list of Members of Parliament who were subject to the recording and, in some cases, the listening to, by prison staff, and who have agreed to their names being released. Further investigation will be required to establish full details, including whether the MP that the prisoner was in contact with was their constituency MP and whether the contact was with the MP directly or with their office. Adam Holloway MP Adrian Sanders MP Rt Hon Alan Haselhurst MP Rt Hon Bob Ainsworth MP Claire Perry MP Conor Murphy MP Diane Abbott MP Rt Hon Hazel Blears MP Huw Irranca-Davies MP Ian Paisley MP Rt Hon Jack Straw MP Jim Dowd MP Jim Fitzpatrick MP Kate Green MP Kelvin Hopkins MP Kerry McCarthy MP Rt Hon Lynne Featherstone MP Maria Eagle MP Martin Horwood MP Mike Kane MP Sarah Teather MP Rt Hon Simon Hughes MP Siobhan McDonagh MP Rt Hon Tessa Jowell MP Finally, I wanted to inform Members that a member of the National Assembly for Wales has been identified as being affected by this issue. The Justice Secretary has written to the First Minister of Wales, Carwyn Jones, to inform him of this and separately to the affected Assembly Member to inform them personally. I have also sent a “dear colleague” letter to the First Minister of Wales to forward to other Assembly Members, if he so chooses. I am placing a copy of this letter and its annex in the Libraries of both Houses. ANDREW SELOUS Page 2 ANNEX INVESTIGATION - DRAFT TERMS OF REFERENCE Purpose To investigate the circumstances surrounding the interception of telephone calls from prisoners in England and Wales to the offices of Members of Parliament, and to make recommendations to ensure that there are sufficient safeguards in place to minimise the risk of such calls being recorded inappropriately in the future. To consider the current arrangements and make recommendations, if appropriate, to ensure that there are sufficient safeguards in place for all confidential calls from prisoners. Background It has been established that a number of telephone calls from serving prisoners to the Parliamentary or constituency offices of Members of Parliament were recorded by prison staff between 2006–2014. In some instances the prisons involved appear to have been informed by their prisoners that the telephone numbers to be called were those of the offices of MPs, in others not. In some instances the calls were recorded, in others the calls were recorded and those recordings later listened to, at least in part, by prison staff. In other instances the calls were recorded and listened to live, at least in part. Rules 34 and 35A of the Prison Rules 1999 make provision in relation to prisoner communications. Of particular relevance, rule 35A(2A) provides that a prison governor may not make arrangements for interception of any communications between a prisoner and "any body or organisation with which the Secretary of State has made arrangements for the confidential handling of correspondence" unless there are reasonable grounds to believe that the communication is being made with the intention of furthering a criminal purpose and authorisation from specified officers of NOMS is obtained. The arrangements for the confidential handling of correspondence are set out in PSI 49/2011 and include: Correspondence between prisoners and their MP, AM and MEP must be treated as privileged but only where they are acting in a constituency capacity (not in a social Page 3 capacity). This privilege does not extend to Members of the House of Lords, who have no constituency responsibilities, or to Local Councillors. Investigation The investigation will: Facts Establish the full extent of calls recorded to the offices of Members of Parliament – numbers, dates, recipients, duration. This should highlight calls which were recorded, later listened to or monitored live. Consider the Prison Rules and policy relevant to the interception of prisoner phone calls to MPs and assess whether (and if so to what extent) any interception was not in accordance with those Rules and policy. In particular: o Establish whether whole or parts of calls were monitored live or recordings listened to inappropriately. o Determine how, why and on whose authority calls to MPs offices came to be recorded, recordings listened to or monitored live inappropriately. Determine whether the Rules, policy and safeguards relating to the monitoring of calls to the office of MPs, and other confidential communications, are clear and make any recommendations for changes to improve compliance. Conclusions and Recommendations Set out conclusions and recommendations to minimise the risk of confidential calls being intercepted inappropriately in the future. Approach The investigation will be carried out working closely with NOMS Officials and with the Interception Commissioner’s office. Final Report The report will be delivered to the Secretary of State for Justice in two stages: By 30 November review the urgent, practical steps which NOMS are currently taking to minimise the risk of recording or listening to of calls inappropriately in the future. A final report to be submitted early in 2015. Page 4 .