麻豆社

Chair of the Commons justice committee, Bob Neill, has said Ministry of Justice officials "have a great deal to answer for" over the Birmingham prison failure.

The Conservative MP was speaking after a after a highly critical report by the Prisons Inspectorate Peter Clarke, into conditions at Birmingham Prison, prompting the government to launch an emergency takeover of the jail from the private company G4S.

He told Radio 4's World at One programme that for years the management of the national prison service "has been marking its own homework", and "all too often ...the recommendations of the Inspectorate go unacted upon, sometimes for years".

(Photo: G4S sign outside Birmingham prison Credit: PA)