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 - Minister of State (Education)
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 - Minister of State (Education)
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 - Minister of State (Education)
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 - Minister of State (Education)
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 - Minister of State (Education)
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 10 December 2022.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The total population and capacity of the prison estate is published weekly at Prison population statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). The population and capacity of each individual prison (including HMP/YOI Wandsworth) is published monthly at the same link. As set out in this publication, as at Friday 25th November 2022 (the latest date for which figures are available), the population of HMP/YOI Wandsworth was 1615.
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 - Minister of State (Education)
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% |
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 10 December 2022.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The proportion of prison officers who attended their shift on 10 December 2022 cannot be obtained without incurring disproportionate costs.
Figures for the proportion of prison officers at Wandsworth Prison who attended their shift on 10 December 2022 are provided in the table below.
| AM | PM | ED | NIGHTS |
Expected shifts | 112 | 104 | 30 | 13 |
Attended shifts | 69 | 63 | 14 | 7 |
Payment Plus | 12 | 10 | 8 | 6 |
Percentage of expected who attended | 61.5% | 60.5% | 46.5% | 53.9% |
Percentage including Payment Plus | 72% | 70% | 73% | 100% |
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 attended their shift on 10 December 2022.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The proportion of prison officers who attended their shift on 10 December 2022 cannot be obtained without incurring disproportionate costs.
Figures for the proportion of prison officers at Wandsworth Prison who attended their shift on 10 December 2022 are provided in the table below.
| AM | PM | ED | NIGHTS |
Expected shifts | 112 | 104 | 30 | 13 |
Attended shifts | 69 | 63 | 14 | 7 |
Payment Plus | 12 | 10 | 8 | 6 |
Percentage of expected who attended | 61.5% | 60.5% | 46.5% | 53.9% |
Percentage including Payment Plus | 72% | 70% | 73% | 100% |
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, on how many days over the last 12 months has Wandsworth Prison not had an adequate water supply.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
On 3 November, HMP Wandsworth reported disruption to their water supply across the prison. Contact was made with Thames Water who confirmed that there was a pipe leak in the Roehampton area which had disrupted water supply to the prison. Thames Water advised that the issue should be resolved within an hour. As a result of this, the prison implemented a restriction on access to showers and provided water to enable flushing of toilets.
Thames Water provided bottled water to affected areas, including the prison. On 9 November, the burst pipe was reported to be fixed but a period of time was required to ensure the safety of water supply when it was turned on.
The water supply to the prison was disrupted for a total of 8 days. The disruption lasted until 10 November when mains water was reinstated at the prison.
There have been no other water supply issues reported at HMP Wandsworth in the last 12 months.