Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many inmates have been transferred from HMP Wandsworth due to re-categorisation since 7 September 2023.
Answered by Edward Argar
HMP Wandsworth’s main function is to hold unsentenced prisoners while their cases progress through the courts. Once prisoners are sentenced, they are categorised and transferred to a prison with an appropriate security category. Prisoner movement records indicate there have been a total of 568 transfers out of Wandsworth since 7 September 2023. The number of these which were solely due to re-categorisation is not centrally collated.
There are complex and wide-ranging issues involved in transferring and locating prisoners, and allocation decisions must reflect both the specific needs and circumstances of the prisoner, including their security assessment, as well as the operating environment and range of services at the receiving prison. How these considerations apply in individual cases is not recorded in centrally collated data.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many meetings he has had with the senior leadership team at HMP Wandsworth since 7 September 2023.
Answered by Edward Argar
The Secretary of State’s most recent meeting with the senior leadership team at HMP Wandsworth was a virtual meeting with the Governor on 6 September.
Ministers and senior government officials continue to work and engage closely with leaders responsible for HMP Wandsworth in a variety of ways beyond in-person meetings and site visits.
The Area Executive Director (AED) for Prisons and Probation in London is significantly active in the response to the escape at HMP Wandsworth. The Prison Group Director for London, along with their own team, frequently visits HMP Wandsworth and reports back the AED. The AED is in close contact with the Director General of Operations and the Chief Executive of HMPPS via formal governance, and with Ministers via the Ministerial Performance meeting.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what data his Department holds on how many occasions the number of prison officers on shift fell below the minimum staffing level required by Wandsworth Prison’s Regime Management Plan in the last 30 days.
Answered by Damian Hinds
Staffing levels continually change, owing to varying levels of requirement at different times of day, and because of a range of other factors. It is not therefore possible continuously to monitor staffing levels, but the information we collect on delivery against the Regime Management Plan indicates that in the 30 days up to 19 October – the most recent data currently available – staffing numbers did not drop below the minimum requirement.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what was the maximum number of full-time prison officers working at Wandsworth prison in each year since 2010.
Answered by Damian Hinds
The quarterly HMPPS workforce statistics publication covers staffing information. The latest publication covers data for up to the period 30 June 2023.
Despite a challenging labour market, the 12 months ending 30 June 2023 saw an increase of over 700 Full Time Equivalent Band prison officers. This means we now have 4,000 more prison officers than in March 2017. We are also recruiting 5,000 prison officers across public and private prisons by the mid-2020s. Over the past six years, from March 2017 to March 2023, staffing levels at HMP Wandsworth have increased by 24 per cent, on the basis of Full Time Equivalent (FTE).
We recently increased the pay of the vast majority of frontline officers by 7 per cent. Combined with other pay rises, this means starting pay for prison officers has increased since 2019/20 from £22,293 to £30,902 (on the basis of a 37-hour week at the national rate, with unsocial hours) or £23,529 to £32,851 (on the basis of a 39-hour week at the national rate, with unsocial hours). The latest Prison Service Pay Review Body (PSPRB) report, the recommendations of which were all accepted, can be found here PSPRB Report - 2023.
When a prison has vacancies, staffing levels are routinely supplemented, for instance by using Payment Plus, which is a form of overtime not accounted for in the data provided here. Use of detached duty, a long-standing mechanism to deploy staff from one prison to support another, is also not included in this data.
Table 1 sets out the number of staff at HMP Wandsworth relative to the number of prisoners for the years for which data is available.
Table 1: The average ratio of HMPPS payroll staff to prisoners at HMP Wandsworth for the 12 months to the end of June 2023 and the previous six years is shown in the table below. The prison population data is publicly available back to September 2015 so the earliest 12-month average June figure is for 2017.
12 months to end of June | Average payroll staff (FTE) | Average number of prisoners | Staff/prisoner ratio |
June 2017 | 460 | 1,575 | 0.3 |
June 2018 | 487 | 1,474 | 0.3 |
June 2019 | 606 | 1,443 | 0.4 |
June 2020 | 585 | 1,495 | 0.4 |
June 2021 | 581 | 1,519 | 0.4 |
June 2022 | 588 | 1,384 | 0.4 |
June 2023 | 583 | 1,517 | 0.4 |
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many assaults have been reported against prison officers at Wandsworth Prison in each year since 2010.
Answered by Damian Hinds
Assaults on staff by establishment from 2003 – March 2023 in England and Wales are published as part of our Safety in Custody statistics available at the following link: Safety-in-custody-summary-q1-2023-final-tables.xlsx (live.com).
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, on how many occasions did the number of prison officers on shift fall below the minimum staffing level required by Wandsworth Prison’s Regime Management Plan in the last 12 months.
Answered by Damian Hinds
The answer could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what funding his Department provided Wandsworth Prison in each year since 2010.
Answered by Damian Hinds
The table below sets out the resource budget allocated to HMP Wandsworth since 2010:
Year | Resource Budget £m |
2010-11 | 34.0 |
2011-12 | 33.4 |
2012-13 | 30.1 |
2013-14 | 26.2 |
2014-15 | 25.8 |
2015-16 | 24.3 |
2016-17 | 26.8 |
2017-18 | 28.3 |
2018-19 | 28.5 |
2019-20 | 33.0 |
2020-21 | 34.1 |
2021-22 | 32.5 |
2022-23 | 35.3 |
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the largest number of prisoners held in Wandsworth Prison was in each year since 2010.
Answered by Damian Hinds
A table providing the largest number of prisoners held in Wandsworth Prison for each year since 2010 has been provided below.
Year | Largest number of prisoners held in Wandsworth Prison |
2010 | 1669 |
2011 | 1682 |
2012 | 1548 |
2013 | 1541 |
2014 | 1651 |
2015 | 1645 |
2016 | 1624 |
2017 | 1612 |
2018 | 1498 |
2019 | 1537 |
2020 | 1567 |
2021 | 1547 |
2022 | 1622 |
2023 | 1630 |
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of shift slots at Wandsworth Prison were unfilled on 6 September 2023.
Answered by Damian Hinds
On 6 September 2023, 1,594 prisoners were held at HMP Wandsworth. 125 Band 3 Prison Officers at the prison attended their shift on that day. This equates to 61 per cent of all staff due to attend. 80 officers did not attend their expected shift at the prison on that day. Overall staffing levels were above the minimum staffing level required by the prison’s Regime Management Plan to deliver a safe and decent regime. All staff in both the kitchen and the gatehouse were on duty on 06 September. An initial investigation into Daniel Khalife’s escape did not find the staffing level to be a contributing factor.
We have taken a series of measures to increase the prison workforce. Despite a challenging labour market, the 12 months ending 30 June 2023 saw an increase of over 700 Full Time Equivalent Band prison officers. This means we now have 4,000 more prison officers than in March 2017. We are also recruiting 5,000 prison officers across public and private prisons by the mid-2020s.
We recently increased the pay of the vast majority of frontline officers by 7 per cent. Combined with other pay rises, this means starting pay for prison officers has increased since 2019 from £22,293 to £30,902 (on the basis of a national rate, 37 hour week with unsocial hours) or £23,529 to £32,851 (on the basis of a national rate, 39 hour week with unsocial hours).
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of prison officers at Wandsworth Prison attended their shift on 6 September 2023.
Answered by Damian Hinds
On 6 September 2023, 1,594 prisoners were held at HMP Wandsworth. 125 Band 3 Prison Officers at the prison attended their shift on that day. This equates to 61 per cent of all staff due to attend. 80 officers did not attend their expected shift at the prison on that day. Overall staffing levels were above the minimum staffing level required by the prison’s Regime Management Plan to deliver a safe and decent regime. All staff in both the kitchen and the gatehouse were on duty on 06 September. An initial investigation into Daniel Khalife’s escape did not find the staffing level to be a contributing factor.
We have taken a series of measures to increase the prison workforce. Despite a challenging labour market, the 12 months ending 30 June 2023 saw an increase of over 700 Full Time Equivalent Band prison officers. This means we now have 4,000 more prison officers than in March 2017. We are also recruiting 5,000 prison officers across public and private prisons by the mid-2020s.
We recently increased the pay of the vast majority of frontline officers by 7 per cent. Combined with other pay rises, this means starting pay for prison officers has increased since 2019 from £22,293 to £30,902 (on the basis of a national rate, 37 hour week with unsocial hours) or £23,529 to £32,851 (on the basis of a national rate, 39 hour week with unsocial hours).