Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average (a) prison population and (b) number of prison officers was in each of the last 10 years in England and Wales.

Prison population statistics and workforce statistics are regularly published. Population statistics can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/offender-management-statistics-quarterly. HM Prison and Probation workforce statistics (which contains staffing figures in public sector prisons but not in privately managed prisons) are published quarterly. The latest publication can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/her-majestys-prison-and-probation-service-workforce-quarterly-march-2018

Below is a table showing the average number of Prison Officers present in Public Sector Prisons, alongside annual average prison population figures. The population data was based on the 12 month end prison populations apart form for 2008 and 2009. Due to technical problems relating to the supply of data for statistical purposes, month end population data was not available for the period from July 2009 to February 2010, so data for the last Friday of the month has been used instead (except for December 2009, where the 18 December was used). In relation to the workforce data the figures include Band 3-4 / Prison Officer (incl specialists), Band 4 / Supervising Officer and Band 5 / Custodial Managers working in public sector prisons. It should be noted that as with all HR databases, extracts are taken at a fixed point in time to ensure consistency of reporting. However, the database itself is dynamic and where updates to the database are made late, subsequent to the taking of the extract, these updates will not be reflected in figures produced by the extract. For this reason, HR data are unlikely to be precisely accurate.

Prison officer numbers are at their highest in five years, which is vital to ensuring prisons are safe, secure and decent. We now have over 3,500 additional staff in post compared to October 2016. 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.