Committee publication · Correspondence · 2 July 2025
Correspondence from the Independent Monitoring Board National Chair to the Chair dated 24 June 2025 relating to the 21 May evidence session on Prisons, Probation and Rehabilitation in Wales
From: Welsh Affairs Committee
Summary
Elisabeth Davies, National Chair of Independent Monitoring Boards, provides written responses to questions from the Welsh Affairs Committee's 21 May evidence session on prisons, probation and rehabilitation in Wales. She addresses Welsh language access in prisons, physical infrastructure challenges across the Welsh estate, and maintenance priorities, while also flagging urgent sustainability pressures affecting IMBs' capacity to monitor effectively.
Key findings
- Welsh language access in prisons is inconsistent: bilingual signage exists but complaint forms are often English-only; IMBs report low uptake despite availability, and use of prisoner-translators raises confidentiality concerns.
- Welsh prison estate faces comparable infrastructure challenges to England: chronic underinvestment has created appalling conditions, with issues affecting even newest facilities like HMP Berwyn (heating/hot water problems unresolved for seven years post-opening).
- IMBs prioritise in-cell refurbishment projects and accessibility works after fire safety, citing current unsanitary conditions where prisoners eat in single cells and noting shortage of accessible facilities for ageing prisoner population.
- IMB sustainability is severely threatened by shifting volunteer patterns (ad-hoc, remote preferences post-Covid), inconsistent role expectations, recruitment/retention difficulties, and lack of standardisation, particularly affecting Welsh boards like Parc.
- A 'Strategy for Sustainability' is being developed to improve consistency, standardise requirements, shift culture toward 'One IMB', and enhance assurance while acknowledging reducing membership across the voluntary sector.
Tone
CriticalTopics
prisons-waleslanguage-accessprison-infrastructureprison-conditionsvolunteering
Key actors
Elisabeth Davies, Independent Monitoring Boards, Ruth Jones MP, Welsh Affairs Committee, HMP Berwyn, HMP Swansea, HMP Cardiff, Ministry of Justice
Notable line
“… prisoners having to work, eat and sleep in appalling and sometimes inhumane conditions.”
Key Quotes
“IMBs play a vital and unique role as the public's eyes and ears, independently monitoring prisons and immigration detention to highlight issues affecting detained people.”
“Their sustainability, however, is increasingly under threat not only through the shifting landscape of the voluntary sector across England and Wales …”
“Since Covid, many wish to volunteer on an ad-hoc basis and remotely. While new recruits are asked to commit to no more than two to three visits per month, this can feel at odds with some IMBs who continue to expect daily visits. This is unsustainable and contributes to high attrition.”
“For years IMBs have highlighted the alarming physical decline of the prison estate. This has not occurred overnight but is the result of chronic underinvestment and short-termism, which have severely compromised the resilience of the estate …”
“HMP Berwyn which has been beset with maintenance issues since opening. There have been extensive heating and hot water problems, which have only just been resolved in the Board's last reporting year, approximately seven years after opening.”
“Too many prisoners, such as those at Swansea and Cardiff, are forced to eat meals together in a cell designed for one, with limited or no screening of the toilet, and Boards find this unsanitary and undignified.”
“Boards frequently see prisons using other prisoners to translate for them, which may lead to inaccuracies, not to mention confidentiality issues.”
Source · parliament.uk record ↗