There is no approval you can apply for, and nobody can honestly promise you a timescale. The person in prison submits the number through the prison's normal process, and the prison decides. Published HMPPS policy directs prisons to restrict numbers linked to call diversion services, which is the category this one falls into. Some prisons refuse.
Most people reach this question having already paid for a number, which makes the uncertainty harder. It helps to know where it comes from.
What does the policy actually say about diverted numbers?
It says they must be restricted. The document is the Interception, Monitoring and Security of Prisoner Communications Policy Framework, issued on 11 August 2026, and paragraph 7.9 reads in full:
"Establishments must ensure that any restrictions to requests to add numbers are imposed only when necessary and proportionate in accordance with Prison Rule 34/YOI 9. 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."
That paragraph is describing services like this one, and we would rather you read it here than find it elsewhere (HMPPS, 11 August 2026). The same wording sat at paragraph 11.9 of the Authorised Communications Controls and Interception Policy Framework until that framework was split in two on 11 August 2026.
So here is the position in England and Wales, without the softening. There is no approval process a family can enter. The number is submitted by the person in prison as a social contact, and the prison decides whether it goes on the list. What we sell is a real UK geographic landline number, 01 or 02, regulated by Ofcom, which forwards to a UK mainland mobile. If the prison adds it, their calls to it are charged at the landline rate rather than the mobile rate: 2.48p a minute on a weekday against 5.5p a minute to a mobile, in force since 1 April 2025 (Inside Time, 14 July 2025). Calls are still logged, recorded and monitored in the usual way. The rate is the only thing that changes, and the prison can refuse.
If the waiting is the hard part of this, the Prisoners' Families Helpline, run by Pact, is free and national.
The mechanism is worth understanding before deciding whether to submit one.
Why do some numbers go on the list at all, then?
Because checking is not mandatory for most people. Paragraph 7.5 of that framework lists the groups whose submitted social contacts staff must check, and says of everyone outside them that the checking "is not mandatory and can therefore be considered and managed locally in consideration of risk and resource".
The list is worth reading against your own situation.
| the person in prison | checking a number | who decides |
|---|---|---|
| Category A, including potential and provisional, or on the E-list | Mandatory | National policy |
| Remanded or convicted of a terrorism or terrorism-connected offence | Mandatory | National policy |
| Risk to children, a Schedule 3 sexual offence, domestic abuse, harassment or stalking, or intimidation of victims or witnesses | Mandatory | National policy |
| Everyone else | Not mandatory | The establishment, on risk and resource |
That last row is why numbers in this category are sometimes added without anyone looking closely. It does not make them approved. A number that has not been checked has not been cleared, it has been left alone. The same framework says a number is not added where intelligence suggests an attempt to circumvent restrictions, or where it may belong to another prisoner. How a number gets onto a list at all is set out in how the prison phone system works.
How long does it take?
There is no published figure, and any site giving you one has made it up. What policy gives you is a duty on staff, at paragraph 7.8:
"When undertaking checks on submitted contacts, staff must, where possible, minimise delays in their addition to the prisoner's PIN account. For example, if a list of numbers has been submitted by a prisoner, each number should be added to the account once checked, rather than waiting for every number on the list to be checked. Staff adding numbers on a case-by-case basis must, where possible, notify prisoners of each addition as soon as is practical."
Two things follow. A number does not have to wait for the rest of the list. And the person told first is the person in prison, so the question to ask on the wing is whether their number has been checked and added.
There is a limit to what anyone outside HMPPS knows. The exceptions to paragraph 7.9 sit in the Interception and Restriction of Communications Operations Manual, which is not published. We do not know on what basis an exception is granted, and we are not going to guess.
What is worth doing while you wait, and what is not
Keep writing. Letters are not charged to their phone credit, and the other routes still work while a number sits unresolved.
Sending the same number in again does not put it in a different queue, and the list is finite. A prisoner on a call-enabling regime is allowed up to 20 social numbers, plus 15 legal and confidential access numbers, which cost nothing to add or remove (PSI 49/2011, re-issued 27 August 2026). Twenty places between everyone who wants to speak to them is not many.
The things not to do matter more. Do not leave anything off the form. Do not describe the number as anything other than what it is: if a member of staff asks, the true answer is that it is a landline which forwards to a mobile. The area code is only a preference, so the number looks familiar on their list. It has no other effect, and it is not a way of making a number look like something it is not. Paragraph 7.9 uses the word circumvention, and that is the risk anything clever runs. What the number actually is, told straight, is in what a virtual landline for prison calls is.
What are you paying for while nothing is happening?
Nothing useful yet. Until the number is on their list, a subscription buys a number that sits there. If it is added, this is what changes. In England and Wales a call to a 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, in force since 1 April 2025 and published only after a Freedom of Information request (Inside Time, 14 July 2025). By our own calculation, £10 of their credit buys about 403 minutes to a landline and about 181 minutes to a mobile. A little over twice as long, out of money that is theirs and is very tight.
Plans are bundles of forwarding minutes. You can cancel at any time from your account, and the number stays active to the end of the period you have already paid for.
If you would rather check that arithmetic against your own usage, it is set out in full.
If the number is refused
A formal restriction is a decision someone has taken, and it carries obligations. It must be necessary on one of eight grounds listed at paragraph 4.2, and proportionate. Under 4.4(c) the prisoner and the contact must be told, with broad reasons. Under 4.12 it expires three months from the date of approval, can be renewed, and can be cancelled earlier if the risk changes. Under 4.13, where a close relative shares the restricted number, staff "must therefore identify a workable solution".
A refusal and a number that has simply never been added feel identical from the outside. Which one has happened is covered in why the prison has blocked or refused your number.
If you are weighing up whether to keep paying while a decision is outstanding, the plans are on one page.
Frequently asked questions
The four that come up most often.
How long does a prison number take to be approved?
Nobody can tell you, and that includes us. HMPPS publishes no timescale, and paragraph 7.8 of the 11 August 2026 framework only requires staff to minimise delay and add each number once it has been checked.
Can I submit the number myself, or chase it up?
No. The number goes on their approved contact list and is submitted by them. The notification duty in the policy runs to the prisoner, so they will hear first that a number has been added.
Does the prison know the number forwards to a mobile?
Assume so, and say so if asked. Paragraph 7.9 names call diversion and re-routing services directly, and we will never tell you to present the number as anything other than what it is.
Is there anything I can pay for that makes it faster?
No, and any service suggesting otherwise is selling you something it does not control. The decision sits with the establishment, under Prison Rule 34.
The prison decides, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling you a certainty they do not have.