Legally privileged correspondence sent to prisoners is being compromised by solicitors failing to comply with procedures for addressing mail. The National Offender Management Service says there have been ‘many instances where correspon­dence from legal practitioners addressed or marked incorrectly has led to serious breaches of privacy’.

Solicitors should use a double envelope, with the letter in an inner envelope marked with the prisoner’s name and prison number; the name, address and phone number of the firm; a reference number; the words ‘Prison Rule 39’; the legal adviser’s signature; and, where possible, the stamp or seal of the firm.