Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the ratio of prisoners to prison officers was in (a) privately managed, (b) public sector-run and (c) all prisons in each of the past five years.

Prison population statistics and workforce statistics are regularly published.

Prison population statistics are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/prison-population-figures-2018

HMPPS workforce stats (which will contain staffing figures in public sector prisons but not private) are at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/her-majestys-prison-and-probation-service-workforce-quarterly-september-2017

Staffing figures for privately managed prisons since 2010 were provided in the reply to the Honourable member for Leeds East on 23 November 2017 (PQ 114727)

Every privately managed prison is required to maintain a ‘safe and secure prison; and every public sector prison has an agreed safe, decent and secure operating level (SDSOL) which reflects the category of prison and the types of prisoners held. The SDSOL is central to the delivery of the regime in every prison.

In addition, this Government is on target to recruit an additional 2500 Prison Officers by December 2018 to improve safety and offender management in custody. [Since April 2017 Governors in public prisons have been empowered to manage workforce planning locally and use this flexibility to set their own staffing arrangements.]