Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what records his Department holds on the staff to prisoner ratio in privately operated prisons.

As we have previously stated all staffing matters, including the responsibility for ensuring the availability of sufficiently trained and experienced staff to maintain safe and decent prisons, lies with Contractors. There is no requirement in the contracts to agree staffing levels with the Ministry of Justice. Private providers continue to play an important role in the prison estate and I can assure you that performance of all providers is closely monitored and we will not hesitate to take action where standards fall short.

Prison population statistics are regularly published and can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/prison-population-figures-2018

The table below displays the most recent figures that the Ministry of Justice has for the number of funded posts for Prison Custody Officers at each privately managed prison and the dates that these relate to.