Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans his Department has to strengthen measures to support the safety of on duty prison officers.
Prison staff carry out a vital role in protecting the public and we must do all we can to protect them, and the prisoners within their care. This is why, in the Prisons Strategy White Paper, we have committed to a zero-tolerance approach to the crime and drugs that fuel violence behind bars. We have introduced the Key Worker role to support individual prisoners and identify emerging threats. We are also giving prison officers PAVA synthetic pepper spray, and body-worn video cameras to provide high-quality evidence for prosecutions.
In addition, the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 doubled the maximum penalty for those who assault prison officers, including higher maximum penalties for serious offences, and the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill will double the maximum penalty again. To support this, a new Crime in Prisons Taskforce will improve the way evidence is collected to increase the rates of successful prosecutions.