Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent estimate he has made of the number of prison officers required to maintain safe staffing levels in prisons.

Every prison has an agreed safe, decent and secure operating level (SDSOL) which reflects the category of prison and the types of prisoners held and supports the delivery of the regime in every prison. In addition, this Government is on target to recruit an additional 2500 Prison Officers by December 2018 to improve safety and offender management in custody. Since April 2017 Governors have been empowered to manage workforce planning locally and use this flexibility to set their own staffing arrangements.