Explanatory note

These Rules amend the Prison Rules 1964, as amended. They make two separate groups of changes.

First they make changes to the rules relating to privileges for prisoners. Paragraph 1 of the Schedule substitutes a new rule 4 which makes more detailed provision in relation to the systems of privileges required to be established at every prison. Paragraphs 2, 3(b), 4 and 5 of the Schedule make related provision.

Secondly they amend the rules relating to prisoners' clothing. Paragraph 3(a) of the Schedule amends paragraph (1) of rule 20 to make certain exceptions to the right of unconvicted prisoners to wear their own clothes. Paragraph 6 of the Schedule amends paragraph (3) of rule 38 to restrict the effect of its provisions, which relate to the clothing which a prisoner wears when he is taken in custody to any court, to the time when the prisoner appears before the court. Paragraph 7 removes the power of governors to order an unconvicted prisoner, as a disciplinary punishment for the offence of escaping or attempting to escape, to forfeit the right to wear his own clothes.