Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, will reference to his Department's press release, Increased security measures to give prison officers right tools for job, published on 22 October 2017, how many police-style handcuffs and restraints will be provided to prison officers.

We are determined to ensure the safety of our staff in our prisons. We are therefore issuing the rigid bar handcuffs to all front line staff who currently carry a baton. As part of the roll out, staff will be required to be trained in the use of the handcuffs which will be carried out during their annual control and restraint refresher training. We have begun the procurement of the new handcuffs and will deliver these, alongside the necessary training, to all frontline staff as quickly as practicable.

We are fully committed to addressing violence and assaults by increasing staffing levels and improving prisoner-staff relationships. We are making swift progress in strengthening the frontline, with 20,003 individual prison officers in post at the end of August – an increase of 1,290 since October 2016. Alongside this, we are moving to a new key worker model which will mean every residential prison officer supporting a caseload of around 6 prisoners. This will mean prisoners have a consistent, named officer to challenge and support them away from violence and reoffending.

We have also invested in 5,600 body-worn cameras across the prison estate, rolled out alongside training in staff interaction with prisoners, to support better relationships and give high-quality evidence to support prosecutions where assaults do take place.