Visitors Lift Access at HMP Wormwood Scrubs

The request was partially successful.

Dear Ministry of Justice,

The visits hall at a HMP Wormwood Scrubs is located on the first floor of the building. There is a lift available for the disabled, elderly and infirm visitors

1. Please provide a breakdown in years between 1.1.12 - 31.12.17 as to how many days each year this lift was out of service.

2. Please provide information as to what provisions are given to a disabled visitor who could not use the stairs in these circumstances.

3. Please provide the number of complaints that have arisen in the same timescales from disabled visitors who have encountered difficulties at HMP Wormwood Scrubs whether it be from access or other reasons.

4 Please provide information as to evacuation procedures from the visits hall in the event of fire.

Yours faithfully,

Penelope Graham

HMPPS Prisons Briefing & Correspondence,

2 Attachments

Dear Ms Graham,

Please find attached a response to your recent FOI request.

Yours sincerely,

Maureen Easton 
HMPPS Briefing and Correspondence Team

Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service

Dear HMPPS Prisons Briefing & Correspondence,

1. Please confirm that the document you sent to me regarding the evacuation of HMP Wormwood Scrubs visits hall relates to this particular establishment. This document is untitled, makes no reference to the establishment and is evidence of a piece of paper with writing on.

2. Please confirm how (if the lift should not be used in the event of fire) the disabled, elderly and infirm visitors are expected to evacuate the visits hall if a fire broke out, once the visit has commenced. The steps are extremely steep.

3. Under the Equality Act 2010 you must make full provision to ensure that disabled and vulnerabled visitors are treated in an equal manner to the able bodied and you do not appear to have shown that you have accomodated this within your document.

4 I will make a fresh inquiry as to regards the lift and maintance requirements

Yours sincerely,

Penelope Graham

Dear Ministry of Justice,

In your correspondence you informed me that the lift at HMP Wormwood Scrubs was out of action for 194 days in 2017

You informed me that you did not hold a record for the number of days the lift was out of action in the years previous

All I asked for was a calculation of figures which you declined to provide.

However you have since informed me that the lift was switched off on the following dates and this was documented on the service documents from the contractor

14.3.13
29.1.15
14.2.17
26.6.17

This indicates that despite your original response denying holding the information you will be aware of the lift being out of operation because you held this documentation. I request that you review this and consider why you witheld this information. If the lift was out of service and the engineer had to be called it does not take a genius to work out the number of days between those two dates

Furthermore It was also reported on 15.11.16/ 29.11.16 and 20.12.16 that there was an issue with the controller key. This indicates that the lift may not have been fit for purpose

May I suggest that given the service engineers evidence you return to my original FOI and respond with the appropriate figures for the number of days the lift has been out of operation for the years I originally requested. As You hold the contractors documentation by law this should not be too demanding.

Presumably you will also have an incident record for the entrapments especially given that someone had been in the lift! Hence it being smashed up!

Furthermore I received a letter from Mr Taylor Governor on 12.4.13 apologising for the lift being out of service for a while. So I am confident that this information is available to you

Yours faithfully,

Penelope Graham

HMPPS Prisons Briefing & Correspondence,

1 Attachment

Dear Ms Graham

Please see the attached response to your recent request for an Internal
Review.

Rob Mitchell
Briefing & Correspondence Team
HM Prison and Probation Service
✉ Post Point 14.05, Southern House, Wellesley Grove, Croydon, CR0 1XN

Dear Mr Mitchell

Thankyou for your response and explanation.

May I ask as to whether the law changed in 2017 for you to be obliged to keep, obtain and disclose the records of the lift being out of service?

I hope that in future these records are logged and retained for public scrutiny given that we are paying for this service to be available to the public in this prison

Kind Regards,

Penelope Graham