A BILL introduced by Mole Valley's MP to stop convicts from using mobile phones in prison is on the verge of becoming law.
The Prisons (Interference with Wireless Telegraphy) Bill – a Private Member's Bill introduced by Sir Paul Beresford – was given its third reading in the House of Lords on December 4.
It will now return to the House of Commons, and if passed there should receive royal assent and become law.
If passed, the bill would allow prison governors to use technology to block phone signals and detect phones being used inside prisons.
Sir Paul said: "During 2011, 7,422 illicit phones and SIM cards were found in England and Wales.
"The bill is sufficiently broad to enable us to hope that, as technology changes and moves forward, it can be adapted to meet whatever the technology comes up with.
"It is supported not only by the prisons hierarchy, but also by the prison officers.
"These measures will be implemented in such a way that anyone phoning illegally will suddenly find that their phone is engaged constantly, whether they are phoning in or out.
"It will be possible to track the phones and pick up the various numbers, which will be useful for anti-crime activities.
"That is important because there is ample evidence of the range of activities involved in the commissioning of serious crime and violence, and many of the heavy boys and girls in our prisons have been organising crime outside while they are inside."
Sir Paul also said that criminals inside prisons have used mobile phones to organise drug deals and to intimidate witnesses.
The previous Government introduced criminal offences of bringing unauthorised electronic communications devices into or out of prisons, and of possessing a mobile phone in prison without authorisation, to add to the existing disciplinary offence of possessing an unauthorised article.
The National Offender Management Service has been trialling the use of equipment which detects illicit mobile phone use and blocks calls.
The technology is intended to have no effect on phone signals coming from outside prison walls.
Earlier this year another Private Members' Bill put forward by Sir Paul came into force, closing a loophole which previously allowed abusive parents to escape prosecution by claiming ignorance and blaming each other for injuries to children.
