Background
5.The presence of wireless telegraphy devices, in particular, illicit mobile telephones presents serious risks to the security of prisons and the other institutions to which the Act applies, as well as to the safety of the public. Mobile telephones are used for a range of criminal purposes in these institutions, including commissioning serious violence, harassing victims and continuing involvement in extremist networks, organised crime and gang activity. Access to mobile telephones is also strongly associated with drug supply, violence and bullying. The 2008 Blakey report ‘Disrupting the Supply of Drugs into Prisons’(1) identified the availability of mobile telephones as key to the smuggling of drugs into prisons.
6.In England and Wales the criminal law already prohibits the taking into or use of electronic communications devices, including mobile telephones, within relevant institutions. In England and Wales, sections 40A, 40C and 40D of the Prison Act 1952 provide that it is an offence to convey an electronic communications device, or component part, into or out of a prison, or to transmit sounds or images from within a prison without authorisation or to possess a mobile telephone in prison without authorisation. These offences, which also apply to secure training centres and young offender institutions, carry a penalty of up to two years’ imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine. It is also a disciplinary offence to possess a mobile telephone within a prison or young offender institution.
7.In Scotland section 41ZA of the Prisons (Scotland) Act 1989 provides that it is an offence to possess, or give to a prisoner in prison, or use, without authorisation or outside of the designated area of the prison, a personal communication device such as a mobile telephone or any other portable electronic device capable of transmitting or receiving a communication. Section 41 of the Prisons (Scotland) Act 1989 provides that it is unlawful to bring a personal communication device such as a mobile telephone into a prison or a young offenders institution. It is also a disciplinary offence to possess a personal communication device such as a mobile telephone in a prison or young offenders institution.
8.The problems posed by mobile phones in prisons were recently identified in the Home Office national drug strategy 2010(2), a 2010 Ministry of Justice green paper(3) and the Home Office organised crime strategy(4).
9.In Scotland, a Strategy for Tackling Serious Organised Crime entitled “Letting Our Communities Flourish” was published in 2009 on behalf of the Serious and Organised Crime Taskforce. This includes Scottish Government, ACPO(S), the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency, the Scottish Prison Service and HMRC.
10.The provisions of the Act are designed to create a clear and transparent legal basis on which signal interference equipment can be used within relevant institutions to enable the authorities to find mobile telephones and to disrupt, by means of signal interference equipment, the use of those telephones that cannot be found.