Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will list the ten prisons which currently have the highest proportion of prison officers off sick and unable to come to work.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The quarterly HMPPS workforce statistics publication covers staffing information, including the working days lost due to sickness absence. The latest publication covers data for the period up to 30 September 2022.
Therefore, the latest data available to provide a ‘current’ proportion of sick absence is for 30 September 2022.
The ten prisons which had the highest proportion of band 3-5 officers who took time off sick on 30 September 2022 is shown in table 1 below.
Table 1: Snaphot of top 10 prisons with highest proportion of band 3-5 officers1 off sick on 30 September 20222(p)
Prison | Headcount of Band 3-5 officers off sick | Headcount of Total band 3-5 officers employed on 30 September 2022 | Proportion of band 3-5 officers sick as a percentage of all band 3-5 officers in post |
Werrington | 25 | 137 | 18.25% |
Garth | 40 | 284 | 14.08% |
Onley | 22 | 174 | 12.64% |
Woodhill | 36 | 307 | 11.73% |
Foston Hall | 13 | 123 | 10.57% |
North Sea Camp | 6 | 59 | 10.17% |
The Mount | 20 | 200 | 10.00% |
Wandsworth | 38 | 382 | 9.95% |
Liverpool | 27 | 288 | 9.38% |
Thorn Cross | 8 | 86 | 9.30% |
1. Includes Band 3-4 / Prison Officer (incl specialists), Band 4 / Supervising Officer and Band 5 / Custodial Managers.
2. Includes staff who either had sick end date on or after 30 September 2022 or did not have a sick end date at all, as at time of data being produced for September 2022 HMPP workforce publication
(p) Figures relating to current financial year are provisional
In the 12 months to 30 September 2022, band 3-5 officers lost an average of 17.3 workings days. This is an increase from 16.6 working days compared to the 12 months to 31 March 2022. Trends from 2017 are shown below.
Table 2: Band 3-5 officer sickness, 12 months to 31 March 2017 to 12 months to 30 September 2022
12 months to.. | Working days lost | Average staff in post | Average Working Days Lost1 |
31 March 2017 | 210,880 | 18,104 | 11.6 |
31 March 2018 | 196,525 | 19,581 | 10.0 |
31 March 2019 | 225,142 | 22,223 | 10.1 |
31 March 2020 | 255,782 | 22,352 | 11.4 |
31 March 2021 | 301,045 | 21,854 | 13.8 |
31 March 2022 | 365,520 | 22,154 | 16.5 |
30 September 2022 | 379,439 | 21,958 | 17.3 |
1. Average working days lost per member of staff is calculated as number of working days lost to sickness divided by the average number of full time equivalent staff for a year.
Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisons allow more than half of the prisoners in that prison out of cell for two hours or less a day.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Information about time out of cell for adult prisoners is not held by the Ministry of Justice, as it would require detailed daily monitoring of out-of-cell activity of each prisoner in each establishment. There is no current central instruction prescribing the amount of time prisoners should spend out of their cells. There is a clear commitment, however, to the delivery and performance management of time spent in purposeful activity. Governors have the flexibility to deliver balanced regimes that maintain an appropriate level of time out of cell on a range of activities such as education and employment, which meet the needs of the establishment’s population, with a heavy focus on reducing re-offending. This is alongside basic access to time in the open air and domestic services, such as showers. The Prisons Strategy White Paper (Prisons Strategy White Paper - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)) sets out the Government’s commitment to prison regime reform. A new Purposeful Activity performance measure has been introduced for the 2022-23 performance period, and additional measures are in place for attendance at work, education, interventions and services.
Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will list the ten prisons which had the highest proportion of officers off sick over the past 12 months; and if he will make an estimate of the average proportion of total prison officers off sick as a percentage of the total workforce at each of those prisons.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The quarterly HM Prison and Probation Service workforce statistics publication covers staffing information, including the working days lost due to sickness absence.
The ten prisons which had the highest proportion of band 3-5 officers who had at least one period of sickness absence in the 12 months to 30 September 2022 is shown in table 1 below.
Table 1: Top 10 prisons with highest proportion of band 3-5 officers1 with at least one period of sickness absence2, in the 12 months to 30 September 2022(p)
Prison | Band 3-5 officers off sick at least once in period | Total band 3-5 officers employed in period | Proportion of band 3-5 officers sick as a percentage of all band 3-5 officers in post | All staff workforce employed in period | Proportion of band 3-5 officers sick as a percentage of all staff workforce in post |
Werrington | 148 | 161 | 91.9% | 274 | 54.0% |
Send | 124 | 139 | 89.2% | 238 | 52.1% |
Hindley | 215 | 244 | 88.1% | 380 | 56.6% |
Liverpool | 283 | 322 | 87.9% | 530 | 53.4% |
Grendon | 134 | 154 | 87.0% | 314 | 42.7% |
Full Sutton | 430 | 496 | 86.7% | 711 | 60.5% |
Isle of Wight | 302 | 349 | 86.5% | 627 | 48.2% |
Eastwood Park | 172 | 199 | 86.4% | 329 | 52.3% |
Littlehey | 243 | 282 | 86.2% | 502 | 48.4% |
Downview | 141 | 165 | 85.5% | 280 | 50.4% |
1. Includes Band 3-4 / Prison Officer (incl specialists), Band 4 / Supervising Officer and Band 5 / Custodial Managers.
2. Individuals are only counted once, even if they have more than one episode of sickness absence recorded.
(p) Figures relating to current financial year are provisional.
Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to section 2.23 of his Department's guidance entitled Burial Grounds: Guidance for Managers, which states that burial authorities may contribute towards the provision or maintenance of burial grounds in which their inhabitants may be buried, whether burial grounds in 2.23 includes churchyards.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Paragraph 2.23 of Burial Grounds: Guidance for Managers refers to section 214 of the Local Government Act 1972. Subsection 214(6) provides that a local authority burial authority may contribute towards the provision or maintenance of any cemetery in which their inhabitants are buried. For the purposes of section 214(6), the definition of “cemetery” (in subsection 214(8)) is “a burial ground or any other place for the interment of the dead (including any part of any such place set aside for the interment of a dead person’s ashes).” This would include a churchyard if it is used as a burial ground.