Hundreds of mobile phones and sim cards have been found in prisons in Kent over the past year.

Almost 600 were discovered during searches of inmates in the county during 2013.

Of those, 270 were recovered from Sheppey's Standford Hill, giving it one of the highest figures in England and Wales.

The alarming figures were revealed in a parliamentary question from Jim Cunningham, MP for Coventry South.

Andrew Selous, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice, said each find could include a phone containing one Sim card or media card, a handset only or a Sim card only.

He said: "This government is clamping down on the use of mobile phones in prisons, and seizures have increased.

"Prisons use a comprehensive range of robust searching and security measures to detect items of contraband such intelligence-led searches, body searches, use of x-ray machines, metal detectors and CCTV surveillance cameras, as well as body orifice scanners."

The Offender Management Act 2007 made it a criminal offence to take specific items, including mobile phones accessories into or out of a prison.

In March 2012, the Crime and Security Act 2010 also made it an offence - with a penalty of up to two years in jail or an unlimited fine - to possess an unauthorised mobile phone within a prison.

The total finds were:

Blantyre House - 3

Canterbury (now closed) - 7

Cookham Wood - 1

Dover - 5

East Sutton Park - 6

Elmley - 103

Maidstone - 26

Rochester - 60

Standford Hill - 270

Swaleside - 103

Total - 584