I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for raising that point, and I hope I will address it to his satisfaction shortly.

I was discussing the need for the maximum penalty to be increased, as it had not been raised since 1952. It is an anomaly that smuggling alcohol and tobacco should be subject to a more severe penalty than the penalty for smuggling drugs or firearms, unless the drugs or firearms are directly associated with assisting an escape.

As the hon. Gentleman said, the clause also addresses the problems caused to the security of our prisons by new technology. It does so by creating new offences of taking mobile phones, sound recording devices or cameras into and out of prison. Those prohibited items are set out in list B of new section 40A(3). New section 40C makes it an offence to convey those items into or out of prison without authorisation. As he said, mobile phones present a particular threat to the security of our prisons, and they can enable prisoners to continue their illegal activities and aid the supply of drugs.

Cameras and sound recording devices can also threaten the security of prisons. Pictures taken inside prisons can compromise security, and potentially aid escape. At the same time, new section 40C(4) provides a public interest defence for an offence committed under new section 40C; it maintains the right to bring to the  attention of a court a serious failure of a prison, such as the abuse of prisoners. Finally, a list C item is any item described as such by prison rules, and is subject to a maximum penalty of a £1,000 fine.

We consider the revision of section 40 of the 1952 Act to be sensible and reasonable. It addresses the issues raised by new technology and will provide the Prison Service with strong legislative support in its efforts to prevent illegal activities inside prisons.

The hon. Member for Hornchurch is right to raise the issue of mobile phones; it will always be kept under consideration, because of the related security issues. We believe that it is right that mobile phones are on list B at this time, to reflect the serious nature of the problem. We do not think mobile phones are as big an issue as drugs are at the moment for the reason that the hon. and learned Member for Harborough pointed out, but we will keep them under consideration.