Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many assaults on prison officers there were in 2021-22; and how many and what proportion of prisoners sentenced to imprisonment for assaulting a prison officer in that period served their sentence concurrently with a sentence already being served.

The data on prison officer assaults is recorded in our published Safety in Custody Statistics.

The number and rates of assaults on staff across the estates are published in the Safety in Custody Summary Table which can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1173764/Safety-in-custody-summary-q1-2023-final-tables.xlsx.

Sentencing data does not produce a breakdown of types of emergency worker for all violent offences. Consequently, we are unable to confirm within cost what proportion of prisoners sentenced for assaulting prison officers served their sentence concurrently.

However, the relevant sentencing guideline, issued by the independent Sentencing Council, makes clear that sentences for offences committed in prison will generally be served consecutively and, for any act of violence in prison custody, any reduction to take account of the principle of totality is likely to be minimal.