Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many band three to five prison officers who left the prison service in each year from 2010 to 2018 had been assaulted (a) zero to four weeks, (b) four to eight weeks and (c) eight to 12 weeks before their departure.

The Government publishes quarterly statistics on violence in prison, and a more detailed annual breakdown, and both are available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/safety-in-custody-quarterly-update-to-december-2018

I regret that the specific figures that you seek could be obtained only at disproportionate cost, as staff who were the victims of assaults and subsequently departed from HMPPS could only be identified by reading every individual incident report (of which there are nearly 50,000 in the period in which you are interested) and matching the names of those involved with HR records.

The Government is taking unprecedented action to improve safety in prisons. We have recruited over 4,700 more prison officers since October 2016, and we now have the greatest number in post since early 2012. The Challenge, Support and Intervention Plan case management process for prisoners at risk of violence has been mandated for all prisons to help staff to manage violent prisoners and those identified as posing a raised risk of being violent.

We are investing an extra £70 million to improve safety, security and decency, and equipping officers with PAVA incapacitant spray and body-worn cameras to help prevent serious harm to staff and prisoners when dealing with violent incidents. We are improving perimeter security and introducing new x-ray scanners, drug-detection dogs and dedicated search teams to address the supply of drugs that we know are fuelling much of the violence in custody.