The Prison Rules 1999

Made: 10th March 1999

Laid before Parliament: 11th March 1999

Coming into force: 1st April 1999

In exercise of the powers conferred upon me by section 47 of the Prison Act 1952, I hereby make the following Rules:

PART I

Citation and commencement

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These Rules may be cited as the Prison Rules 1999 and shall come into force on 1st April 1999.

Interpretation

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• (1) In these Rules, where the context so admits, the expression—

• “adjudicator” means a District Judge (Magistrates' Courts) or Deputy District Judge (Magistrates' Courts) approved by the Lord Chancellor for the purpose of inquiring into a charge which has been referred to him;

• “communication” includes any written or drawn communication from a prisoner to any other person, whether intended to be transmitted by means of a postal service or not, and any communication from a prisoner to any other person transmitted by means of a telecommunications system;

• “controlled drug" means any drug which is a controlled drug for the purposes of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 ;

• “convicted prisoner" means, subject to the provisions of rule 7(3), a prisoner who has been convicted or found guilty of an offence or committed or attached for contempt of court or for failing to do or abstain from doing anything required to be done or left undone, and the expression “unconvicted prisoner" shall be construed accordingly;

• “coronavirus” has the meaning given by section 1 of the 2020 Act (meaning of “coronavirus” and related terminology);

• “coronavirus period” means the period of time inclusive of a transmission control period and the transition period which follows it;

• “electronic cigarette” means a product that can be used for the consumption of nicotine-containing vapour via a mouth piece, or any component of that product, including a cartridge, a tank, and the device without cartridge or tank (regardless of whether the product is disposable or refillable by means of a refill cartridge and a tank, or rechargeable with single use cartridges);

• “fixed term prisoner” has the meaning assigned to it by section 237(1) of the Criminal Justice Act 2003;

• “governor” includes an officer for the time being in charge of a prison;

• “health care professional” means a person who is a member of a profession regulated by a body mentioned in section 25(3) of the National Health Service Reform and Health Care Professions Act 2002 and who is working within the prison ...;

• “health care provider” includes any provider of health services, whether or not commissioned by an NHS body (within the meaning given by section 275(1) of the National Health Service 2006);

• “information technology equipment” includes any laptop or notebook computer, desktop computer, gaming console, handheld computing device, personal organiser or any electronic device containing a computer processor and capable of connecting to the internet, and any reference to information technology equipment includes a reference to– a component part of a device of that description; orany article designed or adapted for use with any information technology equipment (including any disk, film or other separate article on which images, sounds, computer code or other information may be stored or recorded);

• “intercepted material” means the contents of any communication intercepted pursuant to these Rules;

• “intermittent custody order” has the meaning assigned to it by section 183 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003;

• “legal adviser" means, in relation to a prisoner, his counsel or solicitor, and includes a clerk acting on behalf of his solicitor;

• “officer" means an officer of a prison and, for the purposes of rule 40(2), includes a prisoner custody officer who is authorised to perform escort functions in accordance with section 89 of the Criminal Justice Act 1991 ;

• “payback punishment” means a requirement to complete unpaid work that is rehabilitative or reparative in nature;

• “pharmacy medicine” has the meaning given in regulation 8 of the Human Medicines Regulations 2012;

• “prescription only medicine” has the meaning as given in regulation 8 of the Human Medicines Regulations 2012;

• “prison minister" means, in relation to a prison, a minister appointed to that prison under section 10 of the Prison Act 1952;

• “psychoactive substance” has the same meaning as in the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016;

• ...

• ...

• ...

• “telecommunications system” means any system (including the apparatus comprised in it) which exists for the purpose of facilitating the transmission of communications by any means involving the use of electrical or electro-magnetic energy;

• “the 2003 Act” means the Criminal Justice Act 2003;

• “the 2020 Act” means the Coronavirus Act 2020;

• “transition period” means the period of 3 months starting on the date on which a transmission control period ends;

• “transmission control period” has the meaning given by paragraph 5 of Schedule 21 to the 2020 Act.

• (2) In these Rules—

• (a) a reference to an award of additional days means additional days awarded under these Rules by virtue of section 42 of the Criminal Justice Act 1991 or by virtue of section 257 of the 2003 Act;

• (b) a reference to the Church of England includes a reference to the Church in Wales; and

• (c) a reference to a numbered rule is, unless otherwise stated, a reference to the rule of that number in these Rules and a reference in a rule to a numbered paragraph is, unless otherwise stated, a reference to the paragraph of that number in that rule.

PART II — PRISONERS

GENERAL

Purpose of prison training and treatment

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The purpose of the training and treatment of convicted prisoners shall be to encourage and assist them to lead a good and useful life.

Outside contacts

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• (1) Special attention shall be paid to the maintenance of such relationships between a prisoner and his family as are desirable in the best interests of both.

• (2) A prisoner shall be encouraged and assisted to establish and maintain such relations with persons and agencies outside prison as may, in the opinion of the governor, best promote the interests of his family and his own social rehabilitation.

After care

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From the beginning of a prisoner’s sentence, consideration shall be given, in consultation with the appropriate after-care organisation, to the prisoner’s future and the assistance to be given him on and after his release.

Maintenance of order and discipline

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• (1) Order and discipline shall be maintained with firmness, but with no more restriction than is required for safe custody and well ordered community life.

• (2) In the control of prisoners, officers shall seek to influence them through their own example and leadership, and to enlist their willing co-operation.

• (3) At all times the treatment of prisoners shall be such as to encourage their self-respect and a sense of personal responsibility, but a prisoner shall not be employed in any disciplinary capacity.

Classification of prisoners

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• (1) Subject to paragraphs (1A) to (1D), prisoners shall be classified, in accordance with any directions of the Secretary of State, having regard to their age, temperament and record and with a view to maintaining good order and facilitating training and, in the case of convicted prisoners, of furthering the purpose of their training and treatment as provided by rule 3.

• (1A) Except where paragraph (1D) applies, a prisoner who has the relevant deportation status must not be classified as suitable for open conditions.

• (1B) If, immediately before the relevant time—

• (a) a prisoner has been classified as suitable for open conditions; and

• (b) the prison has received notice that the prisoner has the relevant deportation status,

the prisoner’s classification must be reconsidered in accordance with this rule as soon as practicable after the relevant time.

• (1C) If—

• (a) a prisoner has been classified as suitable for open conditions (whether before or after the relevant time); and

• (b) the prison receives notice after the relevant time that the prisoner has the relevant deportation status,

the prisoner’s classification must be reconsidered in accordance with this rule as soon as practicable after the prison receives that notice.

• (1D) This paragraph applies if a prisoner has been classified as suitable for open conditions and is located in open conditions immediately before the prisoner’s classification is reconsidered, whether under paragraph (1B) or (1C) or otherwise.

• (1E) For the purposes of this rule, a prisoner has the relevant deportation status if—

• (a) there is a deportation order against the prisoner under section 5(1) of the Immigration Act 1971; and

• (b) no appeal under section 82(1) of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 (“the 2002 Act”) that may be brought or continued from within the United Kingdom in relation to the decision to make the deportation order—

• (i) could be brought (ignoring any possibility of an appeal out of time with permission), or

• (ii) is pending (within the meaning of section 104 of the 2002 Act).

• (1F) In paragraph (1E), the reference to the decision to make the deportation order includes a decision that section 32(5) of the UK Borders Act 2007 applies in respect of the prisoner.

• (1G) In this rule, “the relevant time” means 5.00 p.m on 13th August 2014.

• (2) Unconvicted prisoners:

• (a) shall be kept out of contact with convicted prisoners as far as the governor considers it can reasonably be done, unless and to the extent that they have consented to share residential accommodation or participate in any activity with convicted prisoners; and

• (b) shall under no circumstances be required to share a cell with a convicted prisoner.

• (3) Prisoners committed or attached for contempt of court, or for failing to do or abstain from doing anything required to be done or left undone:

• (a) shall be treated as a separate class for the purposes of this rule;

• (b) notwithstanding anything in this rule, may be permitted to associate with any other class of prisoners if they are willing to do so; and

• (c) shall have the same privileges as an unconvicted prisoner under rules 20(5), 23(1) and 35(1).

• (4) Nothing in this rule shall require a prisoner to be deprived unduly of the society of other persons.

Privileges

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• (1) There shall be established at every prison systems of privileges ... appropriate to the classes of prisoners there, which shall include arrangements under which money earned by prisoners in prison may be spent by them within the prison.

• (2) Systems of privileges established under paragraph (1) may include arrangements under which prisoners may be allowed time outside their cells and in association with one another, in excess of the minimum time which, subject to the other provisions of these Rules apart from this rule, is otherwise allowed to prisoners at the prison for this purpose.

• (3) Systems of privileges established under paragraph (1) may include arrangements under which privileges may be granted to prisoners only in so far as they have met, and for so long as they continue to meet, specified standards in their behaviour and their performance in work or other activities.

• (4) Systems of privileges which include arrangements of the kind referred to in paragraph (3) shall include procedures to be followed in determining whether or not any of the privileges concerned shall be granted, or shall continue to be granted, to a prisoner; such procedures shall include a requirement that the prisoner be given reasons for any decision adverse to him together with a statement of the means by which he may appeal against it.

• (5) Nothing in this rule shall be taken to confer on a prisoner any entitlement to any privilege or to affect any provision in these Rules other than this rule as a result of which any privilege may be forfeited or otherwise lost or a prisoner deprived of association with other prisoners.

Temporary release

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• (1) Subject to paragraph (1A), the Secretary of State may, in accordance with the other provisions of this rule, release temporarily a prisoner to whom this rule applies.

• (1A) A prisoner who has the relevant deportation status must not be released under this rule unless the prisoner is located in open conditions immediately before the time of release.

• (2) A prisoner may be released under this rule for any period or periods and subject to any conditions.

• (3) A prisoner may only be released under this rule:

• (a) on compassionate grounds or for the purpose of receiving medical treatment;

• (b) to engage in employment or voluntary work;

• (c) to receive instruction or training which cannot reasonably be provided in the prison;

• (d) to enable him to participate in any proceedings before any court, tribunal or inquiry;

• (e) to enable him to consult with his legal adviser in circumstances where it is not reasonably practicable for the consultation to take place in the prison;

• (f) to assist any police officer in any enquiries;

• (g) to facilitate the prisoner’s transfer between prisons;

• (h) to assist him in maintaining family ties or in his transition from prison life to freedom; or

• (i) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

• (4) A prisoner shall not be released under this rule unless the Secretary of State is satisfied that there would not be an unacceptable risk of his committing offences whilst released or otherwise failing to comply with any condition upon which he is released.

• (5) The Secretary of State shall not release under this rule a prisoner serving a sentence of imprisonment if, having regard to:

• (a) the period or proportion of his sentence which the prisoner has served or, in a case where paragraph (10) does not apply to require all the sentences he is serving to be treated as a single term, the period or proportion of any such sentence he has served; and

• (b) the frequency with which the prisoner has been granted temporary release under this rule,

the Secretary of State is of the opinion that the release of the prisoner would be likely to undermine public confidence in the administration of justice.

• (6) If a prisoner has been temporarily released under this rule during the relevant period and has been sentenced to imprisonment for a criminal offence committed whilst at large following that release, he shall not be released under this rule unless his release, having regard to the circumstances of this conviction, would not, in the opinion of the Secretary of State, be likely to undermine public confidence in the administration of justice.

• (7) For the purposes of paragraph (6), “the relevant period":

• (a) in the case of a prisoner serving a determinate sentence of imprisonment, is the period he has served in respect of that sentence, unless, notwithstanding paragraph (10), the sentences he is serving do not fall to be treated as a single term, in which case it is the period since he was last released in relation to one of those sentences under Part II of the Criminal Justice Act 1991 (“the 1991 Act") or Chapter 6 of Part 12 of the 2003 Act;

• (b) in the case of a prisoner serving an indeterminate sentence of imprisonment, is, if the prisoner has previously been released on licence under Part II of the Crime (Sentences) Act 1997 or Part II of the 1991 Act or Chapter 6 of Part 12 of the 2003 Act, the period since the date of his last recall to prison in respect of that sentence or, where the prisoner has not been so released, the period he has served in respect of that sentence; or

• (c) in the case of a prisoner detained in prison for any other reason, is the period for which the prisoner has been detained for that reason;

save that where a prisoner falls within two or more of sub-paragraphs (a) to (c), the “relevant period", in the case of that prisoner, shall be determined by whichever of the applicable sub-paragraphs produces the longer period.

• (8) A prisoner released under this rule may be recalled to prison at any time whether the conditions of his release have been broken or not.

• (8A) If, immediately before the relevant time, a prisoner has been released under this rule and the prison has received notice that the prisoner has the relevant deportation status, the prisoner must be recalled unless—

• (a) the period for which the prisoner has been released is due to expire on 13th August 2014; or

• (b) the prisoner was released from open conditions.

• (8B) If a prisoner has been released under this rule (whether before or after the relevant time) and the prison receives notice after the relevant time that the prisoner has the relevant deportation status, the prisoner must be recalled unless—

• (a) the period for which the prisoner has been released is due to expire on the day on which the prison receives that notice; or

• (b) the prisoner was released from open conditions.

• (9) This rule applies to prisoners other than persons committed in custody for trial or to be sentenced or otherwise dealt with before or by any Crown Court or remanded in custody by any court.

• (10) For the purposes of any reference in this rule to an inmate’s sentence, consecutive terms and terms which are wholly or partly concurrent shall be treated as a single term.

• (11) In this rule:

• (a) any reference to a sentence of imprisonment shall be construed as including any sentence to detention or custody; and

• (b) any reference to release on licence or otherwise under Part II of the 1991 Act includes any release on licence under any legislation providing for early release on licence.

• (c) any reference to a prisoner who has the relevant deportation status is to be read in accordance with rule 7(1E) and (1F); and

• (d) any reference to the relevant time is to be read in accordance with rule 7(1G).

Information to prisoners

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