Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison officers in bands three to five in each prison have less than three years' experience.

The number of HMPPS band 3-5 prison officers in post, as at 31 December 2018, with less than three years’ experience in each prison can be found in the accompanying excel table.

The Ministry of Justice does not hold staffing numbers for privately managed prisons and, as such, their workforce statistics are not published. Every privately contracted prison is robustly scrutinised by an on-site Prison Service Controller who monitors their performance, including staffing levels. Some privately run prisons are among the best across the estate, and we are able to take rapid action if standards drop.

We commend our hard-working prison officers who do a vital job in protecting the public every day, often in challenging and difficult circumstances.

We want prison officers to stay and progress their careers. We’ve improved induction processes to ease transition into the job, provide care and support for our staff and offer additional training. These measures are part of the work we are doing directly with Governors to address local issues and ensure experienced staff and new recruits remain in the service.