Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many assaults against prison staff took place in England in 2023, broken down by prison.

We publish the number of assaults against prison staff, broken down by prison, as part of our Safety in Custody statistics, in Table 8e of the summary tables, available at the following link:

Safety in custody: quarterly update to September 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Figures up until September 2023 have been published at the above link, however figures for the whole of 2023 are not due for publication until April 2024 and cannot be released at this time.

We are committed to making prisons a safe place to work and providing prison officers with the right support, training and tools to empower them to do their jobs.

To protect staff and prisoners in very serious assaults, we are continuing to roll out PAVA – a synthetic pepper spray – for use by prison officers in the adult male estate. Staff are able to use the PAVA spray where there is serious violence or an imminent or perceived risk of it.

We have rolled out a new Body Worn Video Camera system which has increased the overall number of cameras across public sector prisons to over 13,000. This enables every operational band 3-5 officer on shift to wear a camera. They are supported by a new Policy Framework which mandates the wearing of the cameras.

The new Body Worn Video Camera system will be fully networked and accessible via current prison IT improving access to footage and the ability to share it with other agencies, with the overall aim of increasing use and transparency. The cameras will provide high-quality evidence to support prosecutions against prisoners who commit assaults.