Asked by: Caroline Flint (Labour - Don Valley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison officers were signed off work for mental health reasons in (a) publicly-managed and (b) privately-managed prisons in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
HMPPS is committed to ensuring the health, safety and wellbeing of its staff in England and Wales, with all staff having access to a comprehensive occupational health service and employee assistance programme.
The number of prison officers who were signed off work for mental health reasons in publicly-managed prison are shown in the Table 1 below.
Table 1: HMPPS band 3-5 prison officers1 who were signed off sick due to Mental and Behavioural Disorders2 in public sector prisons, 2009/10 to 2018/19
Headcount | |
| Number of prison officers who had sick leave due to Mental and Behavioural Disorders2 |
12 months ending 31 Mar 2010 | 1,484 |
12 months ending 31 Mar 2011 | 1,415 |
12 months ending 31 Mar 2012 | 1,456 |
12 months ending 31 Mar 2013 | 1,414 |
12 months ending 31 Mar 2014 | 1,602 |
12 months ending 31 Mar 2015 | 1,422 |
12 months ending 31 Mar 2016 | 1,405 |
12 months ending 31 Mar 2017 | 1,465 |
12 months ending 31 Mar 2018 | 1,357 |
12 months ending 31 Mar 2019 | 1,939 |
While the figures show an increase in the number of individuals, the figures in 2010 represent 5.7% of the workforce and in 2019 it represents 8.5% of the workforce.
We do not collect this information for privately managed prisons, as there is no contractual requirement for us to do so. All staffing matters in privately managed prisons, including the responsibility of ensuring the availability of sufficiently trained and experienced staff to maintain safe and decent prisons, lies with contractors.
Asked by: Caroline Flint (Labour - Don Valley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison officers were signed off work with post-traumatic stress disorder in (a) publicly-managed and (b) privately-managed prisons in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
Information is not available on the number of prison officers diagnosed with PTSD in relation to their work in the prison service as there is no classification for PTSD available on the centralised recording of sick absence.
We do not collect this information for privately managed prisons, as there is no contractual requirement for us to do so. All staffing matters in privately managed prisons, including the responsibility of ensuring the availability of sufficiently trained and experienced staff to maintain safe and decent prisons, lies with contractors.
HMPPS is committed to ensuring the health, safety and wellbeing of its staff in England and Wales, with all staff having access to a comprehensive occupational health service and employee assistance programme.
Asked by: Caroline Flint (Labour - Don Valley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison officers took early retirement due to ill health in (a) publicly-managed and (b) privately-managed prisons in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
HMPPS is committed to ensuring the health, safety and wellbeing of its staff in England and Wales, with all staff having access to a comprehensive occupational health service and employee assistance programme.
The number of prison officers in public sectors prisons who took early retirement due to ill health in each of the last 10 years is shown in the table below.
Table 1: HMPPS band 3-5 prison officers1 who retired early due to ill health in public sector prisons, 2009/10 to 2018/19
Headcount | |
| Number of prison officers who retired early due to ill health |
12 months ending 31 Mar 2010 | 85 |
12 months ending 31 Mar 2011 | 82 |
12 months ending 31 Mar 2012 | 113 |
12 months ending 31 Mar 2013 | 129 |
12 months ending 31 Mar 2014 | 124 |
12 months ending 31 Mar 2015 | 154 |
12 months ending 31 Mar 2016 | 150 |
12 months ending 31 Mar 2017 | 142 |
12 months ending 31 Mar 2018 | 109 |
12 months ending 31 Mar 2019 | 112 |
1. Includes Band 3-4 / Prison Officer (incl. specialists), Band 4 / Supervising Officer and Band 5 / Custodial Managers
Although there appears to be a clear upward trend, the figures have remained fairly static, representing only 0.3% of the workforce in 2010 and 0.5% of the workforce in 2019.
We do not collect this information for privately managed prisons, as there is no contractual requirement for us to do so. All staffing matters in privately managed prisons, including the responsibility of ensuring the availability of sufficiently trained and experienced staff to maintain safe and decent prisons, lies with contractors.
Asked by: Caroline Flint (Labour - Don Valley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what mental health support his Department provides to people employed in the justice and custodial sector.
Answered by Edward Argar
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) recognises the importance of mental wellbeing and offers a wide range of mental health support to employees working in all its executive agencies and arm’s length bodies, which includes HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) and HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS). This is captured in our Mental Health Strategy. MoJ has a network of Mental Health Allies, trained staff volunteers, working across MoJ to support staff.
MoJ offers all staff access to an Occupational Health (OH) service. For staff working in HMPPS this includes additional access to specialist Mental Health Advisers. All MoJ staff have access to our Employee Assistance Provider (EAP). The service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. It includes:
We have dedicated mental wellbeing intranet pages that all staff can access. Content includes, stress support tools and stress risk assessment forms, guidance for managers on how to support employees with mental ill health and links to external organisations. HMPPS offer staff “Live learning” programmes aimed at supporting the mental health of new Prison Officer recruits. Prison Officers are also supported by a variety of peer support groups such as Wellbeing Champions, the Chaplaincy Team, and Care teams.
Asked by: Caroline Flint (Labour - Don Valley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what support his Department provides to people employed in the justice and custodial sector who are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Answered by Edward Argar
At the Ministry of Justice, all staff in all its executive agencies and arm’s length bodies, which includes HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) and HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) have access to our Occupational Health provision and our Employee Assistance Provider (EAP) services.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can be identified through an Occupational Health referral. In addition, within HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) Mental Health Advisers, specialist advisers, provided by our OH supplier can identify treatment for PTSD, following a work related traumatic incident. Where PTSD is diagnosed MoJ employees will be referred for bespoke support provided by our EAP in the form of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing (EMDR). These treatments have been identified as best practice in NICE (National Institute of Clinical Excellence) guidelines.
In HMPPS we plan to implement TRiM (Trauma Management) training for prison based staff. This will take place in ten prisons with imminent roll out across the estate. TRiM is a mental health assessment approach used by the military to detect PTSD and will provide an additional method of recognising the condition which will allow employees to be fast tracked to the appropriate therapy.
Asked by: Caroline Flint (Labour - Don Valley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what interventions his Department is making to tackle the ideologies of far-right offenders within the prison system.
Answered by Robert Buckland
Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) works closely with a range of partners to tackle extremism of all ideologies in prisons, including ideologies held by far-right offenders. An HMPPS and Home Office Joint Extremism Unit (JEXU) was established in April 2017 to be the strategic centre for all counter terrorism work in prison and probation and have oversight of delivery across the end-to-end offender management process.
Prisoners identified as being of extremist concern, or who have shown signs of being vulnerable to extremism, are managed actively as part of a comprehensive case management process. Over 22,000 prison staff have received specialist extremism awareness training, to enable them to identify, report and challenge extremist views.
HMPPS uses a wide range of interventions as part of its management of extremist offenders in prison. These range from assessment tools, such as the Extremism Risk Guidance 22+ and Extremism Risk Screening, to rehabilitative measures such as the Healthy Identity Intervention, Developing Dialogues, and the Desistance and Disengagement Programme. Interventions play an important role in helping to encourage and facilitate desistance and disengagement from extremism, support reintegration into society, and reduce the risk of further offending. All of these interventions are available to far-right offenders, if required.
Asked by: Caroline Flint (Labour - Don Valley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether any of the 2,500 extra prison staff announced in the Prison Safety and Reform white paper, published by her Department on 3 November 2016, will be allocated to privately-run prisons.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
The planned recruitment of an extra 2,500 new prison officers relates to public sector prison staff, which will allow these prisons to implement the new staffing model outlined in the Prison Safety and Reform White Paper.
Private providers are required to maintain a sufficient number of staff, with the requisite level of skill and experience to ensure that the Prison is safe, secure and decent environment. We are engaging with private providers on how the new staffing model outlined in the Prison Safety and Reform White Paper will be implemented in private prisons.
Asked by: Caroline Flint (Labour - Don Valley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of prison officers were female in each year since 2010.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
The information requested is set out in the table below::
[1]
Band 3-5 Prison Officers, as at 31 March | |||
Date | Women | Men | Female Representation % |
Mar-10 | 5953 | 19600 | 23.3% |
Mar-11 | 5880 | 19266 | 23.4% |
Mar-12 | 5539 | 18020 | 23.5% |
Mar-13 | 5261 | 17113 | 23.5% |
Mar-14 | 4460 | 14477 | 23.6% |
Mar-15 | 4553 | 14405 | 24.0% |
Mar-16 | 4716 | 14373 | 24.7% |
[1] NOMS Staff Equalities Annual Report 2015-16
Asked by: Caroline Flint (Labour - Don Valley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will introduce compulsory literacy classes for prisoners assessed as having poor literacy.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
Education is key to helping prisoners turn their lives around and in particular to securing employment which we know reduces the likelihood of reoffending. Alongside introducing a core common curriculum, focussing on maths and English, we will empower Governors to put in place a framework of incentives to encourage participation by those prisoners with poor literacy skills.Asked by: Caroline Flint (Labour - Don Valley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what number of days of sick leave have been recorded by prison officers in each year since 2010; and what number of those were as a consequence of violence within prisons.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
NOMS takes the issue of violence against staff very seriously. It currently has systems in place to deal with perpetrators quickly and robustly, with serious incidents referred to the police for prosecution. It is working closely with the police and CPS to develop a new joint protocol to report crimes in prison, this includes pushing for prosecutions when prison staff are attacked.
NOMS does not currently publish sickness absence rates for prison officers, but these will be published for the first time in the NOMS Workforce Bulletin on 16 February 2017. This data will include data on approved claims for sick leave excusal, whereby a period of absence that can be attributed to an assault at work does not count against the officer's allowance of sick pay.