Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of prison officers were equipped with rigid-bar handcuffs on (a) 1 January 2019, (b) 1 April 1 2019, (c) 1 July 2019, (d) 1 October 2019 and (e) 1 January 2020.

Rigid Bar handcuffs are being provided to all band 3-5 prison officers in the adult male estate. Establishments will be required to train their staff prior to issuing them therefore exact figures of staff equipped is not available. Instead we are able to provide the number of establishments who have commenced their training for the dates requested:

1 January 2019, None

1 April 1 2019, None

1 July 2019, None

1 October 2019: 2 establishments commenced training

1 January 2020: 16 establishments actively delivering training

Rigid bar handcuffs are only one of the tools we are giving prison officers to help them do their job more safely; others include body worn cameras and PAVA spray.