Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department has a target for full-time equivalent prison officers to be in post in (a) 2019 and (b) 2020.

I refer the honourable member to the answer to PQs 137608-10, given on 27 April 2018. Prison officer staffing levels are not set centrally, but are determined by each prison governor.

Prison officer numbers are at their highest in five years, which is vital to ensuring prisons are safe, secure and decent. Nearly ninety per cent of our additional 3,111 prison officers are due to be on landings by the summer, with an additional 1,543 candidates booked on to prison officer training courses.

We will not stop there though. The recruitment drive will continue until we reach required levels across the prison estate, ensuring prisons can fulfil their purpose - protecting the public, reducing reoffending and crucially, rehabilitating offenders.