Young Offender Institutions
(asked on 5th February 2024) - View Source
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many times (a) the National Dog and Technical Support Group was deployed to Youth Offender Institutes and (b) those dogs were used in those deployments in each year since 2017.
The National Dog and Technical Support Group (NDTSG) provides prison dogs for patrol and detection purposes and a wide range of technical support including the transmission of audio and visual information, and the capability to capture evidence of an incident.
The table below states how many times NDTSG was deployed to each Youth Offenders Institute and how many times those dogs were used in those deployments in each year since 2017.
Establishment | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | |||||||
NDTSG deployments | Dog uses | NDTSG deployments | Dog uses | NDTSG deployments | Dog uses | NDTSG deployments | Dog uses | NDTSG deployments | Dog uses | NDTSG deployments | Dog uses | NDTSG deployments | Dog uses | |
Cookham Wood | 18 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | - | 2 | - | 3 | - |
Feltham | 39 | 3 | 28 | 1 | 14 | 0 | 11 | 0 | 46 | - | 15 | - | 8 | - |
Parc | 37 | 0 | 30 | 0 | 17 | 0 | 18 | 0 | 23 | - | 30 | - | 15 | - |
Werrington | 13 | 2 | 13 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Wetherby | 13 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | - |
Total | 120 | 6 | 76 | 3 | 37 | 1 | 35 | 0 | 71 | 0 | 47 | 0 | 28 | 0 |
“–” indicates where dog uses are not recorded pre-2020.
NDTSG is deployed to support the National Tactical Response Group (NTRG) with a wide range of technical support including the transmission of audio and visual information, and the capability to capture evidence of an incident. As shown by the number of dog uses, the increased deployment of NDTSG is not necessarily indicative of an increase in the use of dogs. Equally, where dog uses have increased, this may be due to an increase in proactive searches and patrols at establishments, and is not necessarily indicative of responses to disorder.