Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison inmates have had illicit relationships with prison officers in each year since 2010, broken down by offence group.

The table below shows the number of prisoners in the last six years recorded as being involved in proven cases where a member of prison staff has been convicted of Misconduct in Public Office.

No data is held for years prior to 2020.

An inappropriate relationship is defined as any relationship that compromises a staff member’s ability to perform their duties appropriately.

Where officers fall below our high standards, we do not hesitate to take robust action. We are catching more of the minority who break the rules with our Counter Corruption Unit and stronger vetting.

The figures in this table have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large-scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.