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 - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
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, how many days of time off in lieu are prison officers at Wandsworth Prison owed in total as of 25 January 2024.
Answered by Edward Argar - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Time off in lieu is given in respect of additional duties performed in excess of an officer’s weekly hours, where such duties cannot be covered effectively by other means.
At HMP Wandsworth, as of 25 January 2024, an average of 13.4 hours was owed per Band 3 prison officer.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many new prison officers have been recruited at HMP Wandsworth since 7 September 2023.
Answered by Edward Argar - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The quarterly HMPPS workforce statistics publication covers staffing information, including joiners. The latest publication covers data for up to the period 30 September 2023.
Workforce statistics after 30 September 2023 is unpublished and cannot be released.
In the period from 7 September 2023 to 30 September 2023, there have been a total of three Band 3 Prison Officers recruited to HMP Wandsworth. These are new starters only and do not include transfers from other prisons.
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 - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
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, 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, 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, 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).
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners were held at Wandsworth Prison 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 12 January 2023.
Answered by Damian Hinds
Figures for the number and proportion of prison officers at Wandsworth Prison who attended their shift on 12 January 2023 are provided in the table below.
| Morning | Afternoon | Evening | Night |
Attended shifts | 167 | 156 | 54 | 12 |
Percentage of expected who attended including Payment Plus | 72.6% | 76.8% | 114.9% | 75% |