Yes. The number keeps working. It is your number, rented by you and forwarding to your mobile, so moving someone from one prison to another does not switch it off or change the digits. What may not carry over is its place on their approved contact list. The receiving prison checks that again itself.
A move can come with little warning, and the first sign is often a call that does not arrive. If you do not know where someone has gone, the Prisoners' Families Helpline, run by the charity Pact, is free and national.
Why does the number keep working?
Here is the whole of it in one paragraph. A diversion number is a real UK geographic landline, 01 or 02, regulated by Ofcom and rented on your subscription. It forwards to a UK mainland mobile. It is not issued by a prison and not held by one, so when someone is moved between prisons in England and Wales the number is untouched: same digits, same forwarding, nothing to reconnect. What does not travel automatically is its place on their approved contact list. That list belongs to the prison, and the receiving establishment runs its own checks and reaches its own decision. It can refuse, and published HMPPS policy directs prisons to restrict numbers linked to call diversion services. What the landline rate changes is the price of the call: 2.48p a minute on a weekday, against 5.5p a minute to a mobile (Inside Time, 14 July 2025).
The rest is worth saying out loud, because this market skips it. The person in prison submits the number through the prison's normal process, like any other contact. The prison decides, and it can refuse. Some do. Calls are still recorded and monitored as usual. That is the whole of it, told straight in what a virtual landline for prison calls actually is.
What happens to the approved contact list at the new prison?
The list sits on the prison's PIN system, not your account, so a move puts it in front of different staff.
Whether the numbers get checked depends on who the person is. Checking is mandatory for groups the policy names, among them category A prisoners, terrorism cases and anyone identified as posing a risk to children. For everyone else it "is not mandatory and can therefore be considered and managed locally in consideration of risk and resource" (HMPPS, Interception, Monitoring and Security of Prisoner Communications Policy Framework, 11 August 2026).
Paragraph 7.8 of the same framework tells staff not to hold the whole list up: each number "should be added to the account once checked, rather than waiting for every number on the list to be checked", with the prisoner told as soon as is practical.
Paragraph 7.9 is about services like ours, and you should read it here rather than find out later:
"Requests for the addition of 0800 numbers as social contacts, and numbers linked to call diversion and re-routing services, must be restricted under these grounds, as such numbers/platforms can facilitate diversion to certain contacts, circumventing restrictions that have been imposed and potentially causing serious harm."
A diversion number is that category. Nobody can tell you it will go back on the list at the new prison, and the manual covering exceptions is not published, so we cannot tell you when one is granted either. How the list works is set out in how the prison phone system works, and what follows a refusal is in why a prison blocks or refuses a number.
It is worth seeing what the number actually is before you decide anything.
What does a transfer actually change?
The things families ask about in the same breath, separated out.
| what | does a move change it | what that means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Your number | No | Same digits, same forwarding, nothing to set up again |
| Its place on the approved list | The new prison decides | Submitted again through the same process |
| Visits | Yes | Rebooked for the new prison, once you are on its visitor list |
| Phone access hours | Yes | The schedule follows each establishment's working day |
| PIN credit | We cannot tell you | No published source we rely on covers a balance |
How do you find out where they have gone?
If nobody has told you, GOV.UK runs a form for exactly that (Apply to find a prisoner's location); we cover it in how to find out which prison someone is in.
Visits start again from the new establishment. In England and Wales they are booked through the GOV.UK service, and the wait is on their side of it: "The prisoner must add any visitors to their visitor list before you can book a visit. This can take up to 2 weeks" (GOV.UK, Visit someone in prison). Scotland and Northern Ireland use different services. Legal visits, reception visits, double visits and family days cannot be booked online; for those you ring the prison.
Do their phone hours change?
Yes, and that catches families out more than the number does. Phone schedules follow the prison's working day and are applied centrally within each establishment, which is why the hours differ from one prison to the next; access must not normally be less than two hours each day (HMPPS, PSI 49/2011, re-issued 27 August 2026). Our piece on what time prisoners can make phone calls goes into why.
One thing does not vary. You still cannot ring in: "The PINphone system does not accept incoming calls." Waiting for them to ring is the only option.
Do you need a different number for the new prison?
No, and be careful with anyone who says otherwise. One number works for any prison in the UK, because the rate is not set by region. The area code is a preference and nothing else: people pick one that looks familiar. It has no effect on price, call quality, whether the number works, or what any prison decides.
Two other things survive a move. The number belongs to a subscription, not to an establishment. And if more than one person in your family is in custody, they can be given the same number, with the minutes shared. What is finite is the list at the other end: PSI 49/2011 allows up to 20 social numbers on a call-enabling regime.
Plans are bundles of forwarding minutes; you cancel from your account and the number stays active to the end of the period already paid for.
Does the cheaper rate still hold after a move?
Yes, because the tariff is national. In England and Wales, since 1 April 2025, a call to a UK landline is charged at 2.48p a minute on a weekday and 2.2p at the weekend, against 5.5p and 3.6p to a mobile. The figures came out through a Freedom of Information request by Inside Time (Inside Time, 14 July 2025). Scotland and Northern Ireland run different contracts, and we have no verified figures for either.
Our arithmetic on those rates: £10 of credit buys about 403 minutes to a landline and about 181 to a mobile. A little over twice as long, out of the same credit, and the person paying is the one inside, on a very small weekly income.
Whether it is worth paying for depends on how much they ring, and the break-even is set out with the workings.
Frequently asked questions
The questions families ask when a move has already happened.
Will the number go back on the list at the new prison?
That is the receiving prison's decision. It is submitted like any other social contact: checking is mandatory only for the groups the policy names, and managed locally for everyone else. Policy also directs prisons to restrict numbers linked to call diversion services, so nobody can promise you an outcome or a timescale.
Can I add the number myself, or ring the prison?
No. Only the person in prison can put a number on their own list, and there is no line to ring in on: the PIN phone system takes no incoming calls. If a number is refused, the prisoner and the contact should be told in broad terms why.
Do I need to cancel and take a new number?
No. The number is attached to your subscription, not to the prison they have left. If you do want to stop, you cancel from your account and the number stays active to the end of the period already paid for.
Does the area code have to match the new prison?
No. The rate is national, so the call costs the same whatever the code is. The code is there so the number looks familiar to you, and for nothing else.
The number is the part of this you hold; the approved list never was, and a transfer is the moment that difference shows.