Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many investigations were undertaken by the National Crime Agency anti-corruption unit in each year since 2015 by reason for investigation.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
The National Crime Agency is unable to disclose details of investigations by the Anti-Corruption Unit, as this information is operationally sensitive.
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison guards were working in high security prisons by grade on 1 May in each year since 2010.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The quarterly HMPPS workforce statistics publication covers staffing information and the latest publication covers data up to 31 March 2024.
HM Prison and Probation Service workforce statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Ensuring we attract people with the right skills and retain them so they can progress their career in HMPPS is a key priority, we are working hard to retain and develop clear career paths for our operational staff.
We have invested in several new initiatives to improve the experience of our new joiners and increase retention of our employees.
These include:
To help stem attrition we have implemented a Retention Strategy which is linked to wider activities to improve employee experience, employee lifecycle and staff engagement at work.
Nationally, we have seen a substantial improvement in the national staffing picture within prisons over the past year. The number of Band 3-5 prison officers increased by 1,396 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) between March 2023 and March 2024. This is the result of significant efforts across the agency, including substantial increases in pay for staff, our first-ever nationwide advertising campaign, recruitment schemes where we incentivised applicants to relocate to ‘harder-to-staff’ sites, and the Prison Officer Alumni Network, where we have fast-tracked former staff back into the service
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Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many times have prison staff been subject to disciplinary action by reason for that action in each year since 2015.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Information on the number of public sector prison staff who were subject to conduct & disciplinary action since 2014/15 is given in table 1 in the attached spreadsheet. Figures are presented by financial year up to 2022-23.
While the vast majority of Prison Service staff are hardworking and honest, we take all and any allegations extremely seriously and is investigated and where appropriate, disciplinary action is taken. There is no place in His Majesty’s Prison & Probation Service (HMPPS) for any form of unacceptable behaviour.
The Tackling Unacceptable Behaviours Unit (TUBU) was established in August 2020 and this has been followed by an increase in reported cases. Its aim is to help improve the working environment by providing support, insight and expertise to staff who raise concerns. The services TUBU provides include a confidential helpline to support staff who are experiencing any form of unacceptable behaviour; a mediation service to resolve workplace conflict; and an investigation service.
The investigation service enables managers to obtain advice and signposting, and gives access to qualified investigators where there is an allegation of bullying, harassment, discrimination or victimisation.
These measures now mean staff are reporting unacceptable behaviour more often.
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) starts and (b) completions there have been for the (i) offender behaviour, (ii) sex offender, (iii) substance misuse, (iv) domestic violence and (v) extremism programmes in each year since 2010.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The starts and completions for accredited programmes delivered in custody between March 2010 and March 2023 for (i) offender behaviour, (ii) sex offender, (iii) substance misuse, (iv) domestic violence and (v) extremism programmes are provided in figures 3.1 and 3.2 in Prison Education and Accredited Programme Statistics 2022 to 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). Data for 2023-2024 will be published in the Prison Education and Accredited Programmes Statistics report on 26 September 2024.
In custody, the longer-term decrease in Accredited Programme starts and completions has been primarily driven by the change of programme ownership – and responsibility for running substance misuse accredited programmes - from HMPPS to NHS. As of 1 April 2011, local NHS partnerships assumed these responsibilities. The large decreases seen reflect the fact that more offenders are completing programmes run by the NHS, rather than HMPPS. There has also been a reinvestment from shorter, moderate intensity programmes in favour of longer, higher intensity programmes along with the introduction of some 1:1 programmes. This better reflects the identified demand across HMPPS prisons. The number of commissioned completions has therefore decreased although overall maintaining investment.
The starts and completions for accredited programmes delivered in the community from 2009-10 to 2014-15 for (i) offender behaviour, (ii) sex offender, (iii) substance misuse, (iv) domestic violence and (v) extremism programmes are published in the Accredited Programmes Bulletin at Tables 1.3 and 1.4 https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/accredited-programmes-bulletin-2014-to-2015.
The information for April 2015-March 2023 is contained in the attached table. The information for starts can be found in table 1 and for completions in table 2.
We keep offending behaviour programmes under continual review, to ensure that they are effective in reducing reoffending and protecting the public.
We have also introduced a range of programmes designed specifically to address Sexual Offending, including one specifically tailored to non-contact internet offending.
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many multi-agency public protection arrangements referrals were made to probation services for category (a) one, (b) two and (c) three offenders in each year since 2015.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) are the set of arrangements through which the Police, Probation and Prison Services work together with other agencies to assess and manage the risks posed by violent, sexual and terrorism offenders in the community.
There are four categories of offender eligible for MAPPA management, in accordance with the provisions in the Criminal Justice Act 2003:
Most offenders managed under MAPPA qualify automatically for MAPPA management due to their offence and sentence. Therefore, referrals are necessary only where the offender needs to be managed via formal multi-agency meetings.
We do not hold data on the number of referrals made each year. Specific data on the number of individuals managed under MAPPA in each category on 31 March each year since 2006-7 is published in Table 2(a) at MAPPA_Annual_Report_2022-23.xlsx (live.com). Data on the number of individuals managed at each Level on 31 March each year since 2013-14 are published in Table 2(b) at MAPPA_Annual_Report_2022-23.xlsx (live.com).
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many times force been used on (a) adult women and (b) female youth prisoners in each year since 2010.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The information requested is not held centrally for adult women. The Ministry of Justice does not hold use of force data that covers the whole time period requested for adult women.
Data for girls, children and young people can be found within the Safety in the Childrens and Young Persons Secure Estate publication (2022/23 only) Use of force data is published annually with 2023/24 published in July 2024. For years prior to this, there is information on use of force (Restrictive Physical Intervention only) held in the Youth Justice Annual Statistics.
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/youth-justice-statistics
The use of force is only to be used when other methods not involving force have been tried and failed or are unlikely to succeed. Officers must then complete a report, outlining why the use of force was necessary, reasonable and proportionate. Prisons and Youth Custody establishments monitor the use of force and take action where there is inappropriate use or poor practice.
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many allegations of misconduct were received by the Tackling Unacceptable Behaviours Unit by allegation type in each year since 2015.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
There is no place in His Majesty’s Prison & Probation Service (HMPPS) for any form of unacceptable behaviour. Any allegation of unacceptable behaviour is taken seriously and investigated. Where appropriate, disciplinary action is taken.
The Tackling Unacceptable Behaviours Unit (TUBU) was established in August 2020. Its aim is to help improve the working environment by providing support, insight and expertise to staff who raise concerns. The services TUBU provides include a confidential helpline to support staff who are experiencing any form of unacceptable behaviour (bullying, harassment, discrimination or victimisation); a mediation service to resolve workplace conflict; and an investigation service.
The investigation service enables managers to obtain advice and signposting, and gives access to qualified investigators, where there is an allegation of bullying, harassment, discrimination or victimisation. It was launched across HMPPS in December 2023. It is therefore too early to provide annual figures for the numbers of allegation of misconduct it has received.
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of random mandatory drug tests gave a positive result in each (a) prison and (b) young offender institution in the last 12 months.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Figures for random Mandatory Drug Testing (rMDT) for 2023/24 cannot be released at this time, as rMDT data for April 2023 - March 2024 is subject to future publication in the 2023-24 HMPPS Annual Digest, to be published in July 2024.
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many offenders were marked with a (a) corrupter alert and (b) potential corrupter alert on 1 May in each year since 2015.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The vast majority of prison staff are hardworking and dedicated. A minority of staff engage in corrupt activity which is often as a result of conditioning and manipulation by prisoners.
HMPPS defines a known corruptor as an individual (usually a prisoner or supervised individual) who has received an adjudication or criminal justice outcome related to corrupting staff members.
HMPPS defines a potential corruptor as an individual (usually a prisoner or supervised individual) who has not received an adjudication or criminal justice outcome related to corrupting staff, however there is indication, intelligence or otherwise, that they have attempted to corrupt staff. The individual will usually also have identified risk factors that increases their likelihood and capability of attempting to corrupt our staff.
The HMPPS system which holds alerts does not have a report built in that would allow us to establish the exact number of prisoners with alerts for a specific time frame or date, and it is not information that the Counter Corruption Unit (CCU) has tracked in the time period given. It is therefore not possible to provide details outside of the current data, nor a yearly breakdown.
To provide the requested data, it would be a disproportionate cost to check individual records to provide an answer to this question.
The overwhelming majority of our prison staff are hardworking and honest but thanks to our action – including bolstering our CCU – we are rooting out more of the small minority who are not.
This is on top of robust vetting procedures including criminal record checks, while our £100 million investment into tough security measures such as X ray body scanners is helping cut the supply of drugs entering jails.
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many vacancies were there in the high security estate on 1 May in each year since 2010; and what the vacancy rate was on each date.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Following a period of staffing challenges after the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen a substantial improvement in the national staffing picture within prisons. The number of Band 3-5 Prison Officers increased by 1,396 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) between 31 March 2023 and 31 March 2024, and resignation rates have fallen over the same period. This is the result of significant efforts across the agency, including substantial increases in pay for staff and launching our first-ever nationwide advertising campaign.
However, challenges remain in some sites and where we see persistent staffing challenges, we take a targeted approach, supporting prisons with tailored recruitment and marketing support. Where establishments experience temporary staffing shortfalls, they can seek support through processes managed nationally at an Agency level via the Strategic Enhanced Resourcing Support (SERS) panel. All applications to the SERS panel are considered thoroughly and support available includes overtime payments and detached duty staff from other establishments.
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) only holds indicative vacancy data for prisons going back to 2017. As a result, we have presented the average number of indicative vacancies for the month of May for each year from 2017 to 2023. The Staff in Post dataset we use for comparison with Target Staffing presents a month average position (rather than looking at staffing on a particular date), adjusted for joiners and leavers in month. Indicative vacancy data for May 2024 is not currently available, but we have provided the Staff in Post increase from Table 15 of the published statistics for the Long Term & High Security Estate from 30 June 2023 to 31 March 2024 for context (HM Prison and Probation Service workforce statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)). Target Staffing levels cannot be used to directly calculate vacancies due to the discretion governors have to change establishment level staffing requirements through Governors' freedoms. As a result, the MoJ does not regularly present vacancy data (hence use of the term indicative vacancies) and the data presented should be treated with caution.
An indicative vacancy (FTE) has been calculated as the difference between Target Staffing (FTE) and Staff in Post (FTE). In Table One we have netted off surpluses and deficits between grades and establishments to give an overall net number of indicative vacancies. This means that deficits for some grades and establishments will have been offset by surpluses at other grades and establishments. The indicative vacancy rate has been calculated as the number of indicative vacancies (FTE) divided by overall Target Staffing (FTE) across the Long Term & High Security Estate. The data included covers both operational and non-operational roles.
Where prisons are not at their Target Staffing level, these are routinely supplemented (e.g., by using Payment Plus, a form of overtime) which is not accounted for in the indicative vacancy data provided. Use of detached duty, a long-standing mechanism to deploy staff from one prison or region to support another, is also not reflected in the data.
Table One: Total Indicative Vacancies across Long Term & High Security Estate, May 2017 to May 2023
| Indicative Vacancies (FTE) | Indicative Vacancy Rate (%) |
May-17* | 527 | 8% |
May-18 | 196 | 3% |
May-19 | 73 | 1% |
May-20 | 192 | 3% |
May-21 | 517 | 7% |
May-22 | 611 | 8% |
May-23* | 590 | 8% |
*Due to a re-role of prisons, HMP Aylesbury has been excluded from the Long Term & High Security Estate for 2017 and 2023.
Looking at all staff grades for the Long Term & High Security Estate between 30 June 2023 and 31 March 2024, there was an increase of 376 FTE.
Notes