Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many times Tornado Teams have been deployed to incidents in prisons in England and Wales in each year since 2018.

Operation Tornado is a national mutual aid plan by which prisons support one another in the event of a serious incident or occurrence requiring a reinforcement of staff. Operation Tornado is employed by HMPPS for three main reasons:

• In response to a serious incident requiring a reinforcement of staff.

• In response to other events or crisis requiring additional staff, who may not necessarily need to be Tornado trained.

• To aid the transfer of prisoners in the event of a serious incident or the threat of one (with the GOLD commander’s agreement).

The table below lists how many times Tornado Teams have been deployed at the end of each year since 2018.