British prison staff have been told to stop wearing Cross of St George tiepins because they could be "misinterpreted'' as a racist symbol

Philip Johnston:

Anne Owers, the Chief Inspector of Prisons, was "concerned" to see a number of officers at Wakefield jail in Yorkshire wearing the tiepins, apparently in support of a cancer charity.

"There was clear scope for misinterpretation," she says in a report on the prison published today. "Prison Service orders made clear that unauthorised badges and pins should not be worn." As one of her recommendations, she adds: "Staff should not wear unauthorised pins."

The report on Wakefield, where Ian Huntley, the Soham killer, is serving a 40-year jail sentence, is critical of race relations within the prison.

Inspectors said several black or minority ethnic prisoners reported that "white staff had a lack of cultural understanding of their background and they were disadvantaged in systematic small ways that were not recognised". In addition, "the canteen list had an inadequate range of affordable skin and hair products for black prisoners".

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