Prison Officers
(asked on 11th September 2023) - View Source
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of prison officers at bands 3 to 5 based at each high-security institution had (a) less than three years' experience and (b) three or more years’ service in (i) 2010, (ii) 2015 and (iii) 2023.
Appropriate staffing across our prison estate is vitally important. In line with Prisons Strategy White Paper, published in December 2021, we are committed to recruiting up to 5,000 additional prison officers across public and private prisons by the mid-2020s in line with estate expansion. The number of Full Time Equivalent (FTE) prison officers has increased over time; there were 4,000 more officers in post in June 2023 compared to March 2017
Alongside this recruitment, we recognise the importance of retaining experienced staff. We launched a retention toolkit into prisons in 2021 which provides Governors with the support and tools to tackle the main drivers of attrition in their prison. Since April 2022, we have invested in a number of new initiatives, including new colleague mentors and a new peer to peer learning scheme, as well as focused leadership training in sites where staff attrition is highest.
We have also made significant investments in pay to recognise the hard work of our staff. The 2023/24 Prison Service pay award was announced in July and delivered a 7% increase in the starting salary for an entry level prison officer on 39 hours, rising from £30,702 to £32,851 on the national pay scale.
The resignation rate for prison officers has improved by 2.6 percentage points to below 9% for the year ending 30th June 2023.
The table below details prison officers by length of service for each high security prison on the dates requested.
Table 1 - Band 3-5 Prison Officers by Length of Service for each High Security prison as at 30 June 2010, 30 June 2015 and 30 June 2023
| 30-Jun-10 | 30-Jun-15 | 30-Jun-23 | |||||||||
Name | Under 3 | 3 and over | % Under 3 years | % 3 and over | Under 3 | 3 and over | % Under 3 years | % 3 and over | Under 3 | 3 and over | % Under 3 years | % 3 and over |
Belmarsh | 27 | 478 | 5% | 95% | 19 | 355 | 5% | 95% | 116 | 310 | 27% | 73% |
Frankland | 30 | 563 | 5% | 95% | 3 | 481 | 1% | 99% | 189 | 443 | 30% | 70% |
Full Sutton | 20 | 412 | 5% | 95% | 5 | 364 | 1% | 99% | 130 | 277 | 32% | 68% |
Garth | 10 | 257 | 4% | 96% | 34 | 184 | 16% | 84% | 90 | 180 | 33% | 67% |
Gartree | 31 | 179 | 15% | 85% | 34 | 156 | 18% | 82% | 66 | 152 | 30% | 70% |
Isle of Wight |
|
|
|
| 36 | 270 | 12% | 88% | 73 | 217 | 25% | 75% |
Long Lartin | 67 | 326 | 17% | 83% | 12 | 323 | 4% | 96% | 69 | 215 | 24% | 76% |
Manchester | 25 | 463 | 5% | 95% | 1 | 403 | 0% | 100% | 133 | 272 | 33% | 67% |
Swaleside | 96 | 167 | 36% | 64% | 14 | 214 | 6% | 94% | 70 | 180 | 28% | 72% |
Wakefield | 27 | 390 | 6% | 94% | 1 | 307 | 0% | 100% | 159 | 260 | 38% | 62% |
Whitemoor | 35 | 373 | 8% | 92% | 25 | 302 | 8% | 92% | 79 | 244 | 24% | 76% |
Woodhill | 46 | 400 | 10% | 90% | 25 | 313 | 7% | 93% | 105 | 171 | 38% | 62% |
Aylesbury | 16 | 141 | 10% | 90% | 27 | 87 | 24% | 76% | See Note 3 | |||
Total | 429 | 4,148 | 9% | 91% | 236 | 3,759 | 6% | 94% | 1,360 | 2,993 | 31% | 69% |
Notes to Table 1:
1. The length of service in HMPPS is calculated from most recent hire date. Where staff have transferred in from another Government Department or have transferred in through HMPPS taking over a function, length of service is calculated from entry to HMPPS.
2. Band 3-5 Officers includes Band 3-4 / Prison Officers (incl specialists), Band 4 / Supervising Officers, and Band 5 / Custodial Managers.
3. IOW is not included as it was not part of the LTHSE in June 2010 data
4. Aylesbury moved out of High Security in 2022 and thus is not included in the June 2023 data.