Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, on how many occasions wings of publicly-owned prisons have been closed due to insufficient staff levels in the last 12 months.

The information could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

This Government is fully committed to making our prisons safe and is actively taking the measures necessary to ensure that. We are boosting the number of prison officers by 2,500 and we have already reached the halfway mark over the past year with a further 1,211 candidates who have received job offers. In addition to that, we are also giving officers the tools they need to manage violent offenders – investing in body-worn cameras, new style handcuffs and piloting PAVA incapacitant spray.