Ms Rosie Winterton: On 1 April 2003, funding responsibility for primary health care services in publicly run prisons in England was transferred from the Home Office to the Department. From 1 April 2004, 18 national health service primary care trusts (PCTs) assumed commissioning responsibility for the primary health care services in 34 publicly run prison establishments in England. From 1 April 2005, PCTs assumed that responsibility for all but three of the remaining publicly run prison establishments in Leicester, Wellingborough and Wormwood Scrubs. It has been decided not to change the arrangements for commissioning primary health services in the contracted prisons for the present. Contractors continue to have responsibility for the provision of primary care services in their establishments under terms specified in their contracts with the Home Office. However, a full strategic review is being conducted of the health care elements of the contracts to run privately managed prisons to ensure that they bind contractors robustly into the principle of equivalence with the NHS. Work is also under way with the Healthcare Commission to seek to develop a system of inspection of health services in privately managed prisons that is equivalent to that in the NHS.

Hansard Link : Transferring responsibility for provision of health care services in prisons to primary care trusts