Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of prison officers were equipped with rigid-bar handcuffs on (a) 1 January 2019, (b) 1 April 1 2019, (c) 1 July 2019, (d) 1 October 2019 and (e) 1 January 2020.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
Rigid Bar handcuffs are being provided to all band 3-5 prison officers in the adult male estate. Establishments will be required to train their staff prior to issuing them therefore exact figures of staff equipped is not available. Instead we are able to provide the number of establishments who have commenced their training for the dates requested:
1 January 2019, None
1 April 1 2019, None
1 July 2019, None
1 October 2019: 2 establishments commenced training
1 January 2020: 16 establishments actively delivering training
Rigid bar handcuffs are only one of the tools we are giving prison officers to help them do their job more safely; others include body worn cameras and PAVA spray.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 21 October 2019 to Question 550 on Prisons: Fires, where the information on referrals for fire-related events in prison is held.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The department records all fires in prison on an electronic national database that comprises information specific to the circumstances surrounding each individual event. As part of this, prison fire-related referrals to the police are recorded and are held centrally by HMPPS. However, as confirmed in the response to 550, Crown Prosecution Service referrals are not held centrally by HMPPS because such referrals are made by the police. The requested data may, therefore, be held by individual police forces.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 21 October 2019 to Question 550 on Prisons: Fires, why the number of referrals for fire related events in prison is not held centrally.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The department records all fires in prison on an electronic national database that comprises information specific to the circumstances surrounding each individual event. As part of this, prison fire-related referrals to the police are recorded and are held centrally by HMPPS. However, as confirmed in the response to 550, Crown Prosecution Service referrals are not held centrally by HMPPS because such referrals are made by the police. The requested data may, therefore, be held by individual police forces.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 21 October 2019 to Question 550 on Prisons: Fires, what information his Department holds on fire related events in prison.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The department records all fires in prison on an electronic national database that comprises information specific to the circumstances surrounding each individual event. As part of this, prison fire-related referrals to the police are recorded and are held centrally by HMPPS. However, as confirmed in the response to 550, Crown Prosecution Service referrals are not held centrally by HMPPS because such referrals are made by the police. The requested data may, therefore, be held by individual police forces.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Answer of 8 October 2019 to Question 293577 on Prisons: Fires, how many CPS referrals for prosecution in 2018 involved fire events in prisons.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
We do not hold the number of referrals for fire related events in prison centrally and this information could only be obtained at disproportionate costs
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of CPS referrals for prosecution involved fire events in prisons in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
We do not hold the number of prisoners charged and prosecuted for arson centrally and this information could only be obtained at disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) staff and (b) prisoner (i) injuries, (ii) hospitalisations and (iii) fatalities involved fire events in prisons in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The information requested is shown in the table below. Information for 2015 is not available due to system changes and identifying criteria.
| Prisoner Injuries | Prisoner Fatalities | Prisoner Hospitalisation | Staff Injuries | Staff Fatalities | Staff Hospitalisation |
|
2016 | 22 | 0 | 5 | 21 | 0 | 4 |
|
2017 | 64 | 0 | 30 | 52 | 0 | 33 |
|
2018 | 51 | 2 | 27 | 24 | 0 | 3 |
|
2019 | 29 | 1 | 27 | 18 | 0 | 3 |
|
We will never compromise on the safety of those in our care, and staff are trained to respond to emergency situations in a timely and appropriate manner. The Government is taking unprecedented action to improve safety in custody. This includes recruiting an additional 4,366 prison officers between October 2016 and June 2019 and we are investing £100 million, on top of the £70 million we have already invested, to make our prisons safer.
Independent investigations of fatalities are undertaken by the Prison and Probation Ombudsman. HM Prison and Probation Service is absolutely committed to controlling any form of ignition sources and combustible materials in prisons.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of fire events in prisons in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The cost of fires in public sector prisons from 2016 - 2019 is shown below. Information for previous years is unavailable due to a change in reporting system.
Year | Cost |
2016 | £89,853 |
2017 | £593,646 |
2018 | £450,936 |
2019 | £489,639 |
These figures comprise the total cost of Respiratory Protective Equipment used in such scenarios, refurbishments, as well as any other miscellaneous costs relating to fire fines.
The costs have been collated from the central HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) fire and investigation reporting tool and are only available for the public sector prison estate. Costings for privately managed prison (PMP) are not collected by HMPPS..
We will never compromise on the safety of those in our care, and staff are trained to respond to emergency situations in a timely, appropriate manner. This Government is taking unprecedented action to improve safety in custody. This includes recruiting an additional 4,366 (full time equivalent) prison officers between October 2016 and June 2019, surpassing our original target of 2,500. We are also investing an extra £70 million to improve safety, security and decency.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether vape pens have been used to start fires in prisons; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
There is evidence, as part of wider data collected on fires in prisons, which confirms vape pens have been used as a source of ignition.
We will never compromise on the safety of those in our care, and staff are trained to respond to emergency situations in a timely, appropriate manner. The Government is taking unprecedented action to improve safety in custody. We have invested significantly in increase staff numbers, recruiting an additional 4,366 (full time equivalent) prison officers between October 2016 and June 2019, surpassing our original target of 2,500. We will continue to recruit officers to ensure prisons are safe and decent.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many national prison arson reduction workshops have been held in each of the last 12 quarters; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
We will never compromise on the safety of those in our care, and staff are trained to respond to emergency situations in a timely, appropriate manner. The Government is taking unprecedented action to improve safety in custody. We have invested significantly in increasing staff numbers, recruiting an additional 4,366 (full time equivalent) prison officers between October 2016 and June 2019, surpassing our original target of 2,500. We will continue to recruit officers to ensure prisons are safe and decent.
The continued reduction of fires across the prison estate is of significant importance to HMPPS with an inaugural national arson reduction workshop held in April 2019. The objectives of the workshop were to develop national good practice to prevent fire setting, and to form an Arson Reduction Working Group. The Working Group met in June and will meet again this month.