Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many members of staff resigned from HMP Chelmsford in 2017.

There were 25 individuals who resigned from HMP Chelmsford in the year ending 31 December 2017.

In 2016 we pledged to recruit 2,500 more prison officers. We recently announced that we have reached this target seven months ahead of schedule, and frontline staffing numbers are now at their highest for five years.

We continue to work closely with individual prison governors, including HMP Chelmsford, to address local staff retention issues. Across the estate we have also given governors more freedom to innovate and make the best decisions for their prisons.