A convicted prisoner in England and Wales is usually allowed at least two 1-hour visits every 4 weeks. Someone on remand is allowed three 1-hour visits a week. You book through the GOV.UK service, and only once they have added you to their visitor list, which can take up to 2 weeks.
Those are the national figures. The exact rules for a particular prison sit on that prison's own information page and they do vary. Everything below is England and Wales.
How many visits is someone in prison allowed?
GOV.UK sets out two entitlements. A convicted prisoner is usually allowed at least two 1-hour visits every 4 weeks. A prisoner on remand, meaning someone waiting for their trial, is allowed three 1-hour visits a week (GOV.UK, Visiting someone in prison). Those are the baseline, and individual prisons publish their own exact rules.
Booking happens in one place. In England and Wales you book a social visit through the GOV.UK prison visits service (GOV.UK, Visit someone in prison), which is also available in Welsh. Northern Ireland and Scotland have different services and different rules, and nothing on this page applies to them.
Before you can book anything, the person you want to see has to add you to their visitor list. GOV.UK is blunt about how long that takes: "The prisoner must add any visitors to their visitor list before you can book a visit. This can take up to 2 weeks."
The two categories compare like this, with the first visit, which works differently again.
| Who they are | Visits usually allowed | How it is booked, and the wait |
|---|---|---|
| Convicted prisoner | At least two 1-hour visits every 4 weeks | GOV.UK prison visits service, once you are on the visitor list – up to 2 weeks |
| Prisoner on remand | Three 1-hour visits a week | Same service, same visitor list requirement, same wait |
| Reception visit, within 72 hours of admission | Not part of the standard entitlement | Cannot be booked online – you ring the prison |
Why can't I book a visit yet?
Because the request starts inside, not with you. GOV.UK puts it plainly: "You can only visit a prisoner if they have added you to their visitor list. The prison will contact you once you're on this list." There is no form you can submit from the outside to speed that up.
That is why the two-week figure matters more than the entitlement does. Someone on remand may be entitled to three visits a week from the day they arrive and still not get one for a fortnight.
Two lists, not one, and it confuses almost everybody: the visitor list and the list of numbers they may ring are separate, and checked separately. Of the phone list, GOV.UK says: "This list is checked by security when they first arrive so it may take a few days before they're able to call." Days for the phone, up to two weeks for visits. A first call often arrives well before a first visit.
If nobody has contacted you and you are not sure whether you have been added, the Prisoners' Families Helpline, run by Pact, is a free national helpline for families.
What do you need before you can book?
Four pieces of information, and one of them catches people out (GOV.UK, Visit someone in prison):
- dates of birth for all visitors, including children
- the prisoner's date of birth
- the prison number
- the prison location
The prison number is the one families often do not have. It is given to them when they arrive, and it goes on letters. If you do not know it, or which prison they are in, you can apply to find a prisoner's location through GOV.UK, and our guide to how to find out which prison someone is in covers what that asks for.
While the list is being sorted out, calls usually come first, and the person in prison pays for each one out of their own credit. The rate turns on whether they are ringing a mobile or a landline.
Which visits can't be booked online?
Four kinds. For any of these you ring the prison directly, because the online service will not handle them (GOV.UK, Visit someone in prison):
- legal visits
- reception visits – the first visit, within 72 hours of being admitted
- double visits – 2 hours instead of 1
- family day visits
The reception visit is the one families most need and least often hear about. It is not on the booking service, so the only way to ask is to ring the prison. Our piece on the first few days after someone goes to prison covers what else happens in that week.
What if getting there costs more than you have?
This is the point at which visiting quietly stops for a lot of families, and there is a real entitlement here rather than a favour. Help with the cost of prison visits is available if you receive certain benefits, or if you have a health certificate (GOV.UK, Get help with the cost of prison visits).
Check even if you assume you will not qualify, because the criteria turn on the benefit you receive rather than on the visit. Pact supports families with visits and can help with the application.
Do these rules apply in Scotland and Northern Ireland?
No. Visits in Scotland and in Northern Ireland are booked through different services, under different rules, and this page describes neither. If the prison is there, the GOV.UK service is not your route and we have no verified detail to give you.
A lot of the visiting guidance online is written for Scotland, Northern Ireland or another country entirely, and almost none of it says so at the top.
Between visits, what does contact actually cost?
Visits are the shortest part of the month. Most contact happens by phone, and the phone works in one direction: they ring you. As GOV.UK puts it, "The prisoner has to call you using a prison phone. They can only call people named on their list of friends and family."
They pay for those calls out of a very small weekly income. Since 1 April 2025, in England and Wales, a call to a UK mobile costs 5.5p a minute on weekdays and 3.6p at weekends, and a call to a UK landline costs 2.48p a minute on weekdays and 2.2p at weekends. Those rates came from a tariff reduction negotiated between the Ministry of Justice and BT, published only after a Freedom of Information request (Inside Time, 14 July 2025).
By our calculation at those rates, £10 of credit buys about 403 minutes to a landline and about 181 minutes to a mobile. The same credit, a little over twice as long. How much that is worth depends on how often they ring, which is partly set by the prison's phone schedule – our page on what time prisoners can make phone calls explains why those hours differ.
That is where our service sits. Being exact about it: it gives you a real UK geographic landline number, an 01 or 02 number regulated by Ofcom, which forwards to a UK mainland mobile. The person in prison still has to submit that number as a social contact through the prison's normal process. The prison decides, and it can refuse. Published HMPPS policy directs prisons to restrict numbers linked to call diversion and re-routing services (Interception, Monitoring and Security of Prisoner Communications Policy Framework, 11 August 2026, paragraph 7.9). Calls are still recorded and monitored in the usual way. The only thing that changes is the rate they are charged.
Frequently asked questions
The questions families ask most once the entitlement itself is clear.
Do I still need a visiting order?
Most people search that phrase because it is the one they have heard. The route GOV.UK describes is the online prison visits service plus the prisoner's visitor list. If a prison runs its own arrangement, that will be on its information page.
How long does it take to get on the visitor list?
GOV.UK says adding visitors can take up to 2 weeks, and the prison contacts you once you are on the list. You cannot book before that is done.
Can I bring my children on a visit?
Everyone attending has to be on the visitor list, and you need dates of birth for all visitors when you book, children included. Family day visits exist too, but you ring the prison to arrange those.
Can I use the GOV.UK service for a prison in Scotland or Northern Ireland?
No. It books social visits to prisoners in England and Wales only. Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate services of their own.
If you are weighing up what a landline number would cover between visits, the plans are set out here.
Until they have added you to the visitor list, none of the rest of it can be booked, so that is the thing to chase first.