Mobile phones smuggled into prisons on the increase
The Conservative party have gone on the attack over the number of mobile phones being smuggled into UK prisons.
Official figures show that almost 9000 mobile phones and sims were discovered and taken from prisoners in 2008 which is more than 5800 up on the figures in 2006.
While the Tories say that there could be a serious security threat if terrorism convicts get hold of a smuggled phone Labour say this is just propaganda and prisons were doing all they could.
Mobile phones in prisons is a big worldwide problem and they are used to organise the delivery of drugs into prisons, to organise crimes and in 2007 a convicted Al-Qaeda supporter was caught using a mobile to build a website.
All prisons in this country use body scanners but they are also working on a system to block the mobile signals within the prison walls.