Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of trends in staff sickness rates on safety in prisons.

The safety of staff and prisoners is a key priority. Staff sickness can impact our ability to provide a full regime to prisoners and properly manage those at risk of self-harm and violence. This is why action to ensure prisons are sufficiently resourced is a priority.

We are constantly monitoring a wide range of staff resource data across the estate, including Target Staffing Figures and Staff in Post, and making interventions where necessary. Where staffing levels are being impacted by rates of sickness above that which a prison is profiled for, and establishments feel that sickness rates or other factors will impact on stability and safety in a prison, additional support is available for the prison. This can include National Detached Duty, where staff are deployed to other prisons to manage temporary staffing shortfalls, and Operational Stability Payment (incentivised Payment Plus).

We continue to deliver services to support staff, both to prevent staff absences due to sickness and to enable staff to return to work. These include referrals to HMPPS’ independent third-party provider Occupational Health, access to Care Teams, 24-hour assistance counselling through the PAM Assist helpline and TRiM (Trauma Risk Management), which is a trauma-focused peer support system.

Information on the average working days lost due to sickness per prison staff member is publicly available, and can be found at HM Prison and Probation Service workforce quarterly: September 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk), in the document named HMPPS workforce statistics bulletin: September 2022 tables.