Keys error forces jail to change all its locks

The Prison Service has been forced to spend £40,000 on new locks at a top-security jail after an officer left work with his keys by mistake. The blunder was made at Belmarsh prison in south-east London, which holds category A inmates, and similar errors have cost the taxpayer millions of pounds.

Locksmiths had to be brought in to change hundreds of locks at the prison, the main centre for holding detainees suspected of posing a risk to national security under anti- terrorism laws introduced last year.

Belmarsh is among the most secure British prisons and has an underground tunnel linking it with the neighbouring Woolwich Crown Court. Belmarsh's most infamous present inmate is the Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs.

The Prison Service is investigating the blunder. At present, when keys are taken from prisons or go missing there is no other solution than to change locks because of the risk to security. Researchers are seeking a better system.

Andy Darken, the Prison Officers' Association national chairman, said: "It's surprising that a prison like Belmarsh with the high technology we have today lets people take keys through the gates without an alarm sounding. Many prisons these days have alarms on the keys so if you try to get out the bells go off."

In 2000, officials at Walton prison in Liverpool had to replace a full set of locks after a prison officer lost keys including the master. That April, about 225 locks had to be changed at Long Lartin in Worcestershire when a prison officer took a key home, though he realised his mistake and brought it back. In 1998, a master key went missing at Wandsworth prison in London and 400 locks were refitted. The key was found in a cell.