West Worcestershire MP Harriett Baldwin has urged prison chiefs to extend deployment of a ground-breaking technology which helps to detect illicit materials in UK jails. The MP has written to Justice Minister Andrew Selous asking him to recommend more use of scanning technology developed by Malvern company Metrasens in the Enigma Business Park. Media reports this week highlighted increasing problems of contraband getting into prisons and Harriett this week agreed to write to the Ministry of Justice on behalf of Metrasens. The kit is already being trialled in over 40 prisons in the UK as well as being used in half of US state prisons and a further 30 countries worldwide. Harriett commented: “I have seen demonstrations of the Metrasens detection technology and have been highly impressed by the quality of its product. “The worrying media reports, this week, highlight the increasing issues of lawlessness in our prisons, and Metrasens has asked me to make the point to the Ministry of Justice that it already has access to proven technology. “There is clear evidence that the technology works very well from across the globe and I would hope that more use could be made of the Metrasens system to mitigate this serious problem in our jails.” Dr Simon Goodyear, co-founder and CEO of Metrasens added: “The excellent feedback we’ve received from the early UK prison deployments of Cellsense mirrors that we’ve seen in hundreds of US jails. “The product quickly makes a significant and cost-effective contribution to the battle against contraband. We’re looking forward to expanding the UK deployment and so enable prison security to fully benefit from this UK-developed technology” Photo: Harriett Baldwin MP gets a demonstration of the Metrasens technology in 2015 with (l-r) John Hooper, Sheila Metherell, Jeremy McCoig-Lees and the West Worcestershire MP.