Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 17 May 2019 to Question 252665 on Prison Officers, what assessment he has made of the effect on levels of prison violence of the loss of over 80,000 years of prison officers' cumulative length of service.

The causes of violence in prison are complex, but we know that the skills and availability of staff play a critical role in maintaining order. We have recruited over 4,700 more prison officers since October 2016, and we now have the greatest number in post since early 2012. We have established a new Standards Coaching Team of experienced officers from across the estate who have been trained in coaching skills. They are advising these new staff on standards and consistency, and working with them to build their confidence.

Recruiting so many new officers inevitably means there are more staff and more leavers. We are working hard to retain staff, with the biggest pay increase in a decade and additional training so they stay and progress their careers.

The key worker scheme is already showing promising signs of effectiveness and has started in all 92 closed adult male prisons, with over 30,000 prisoners having an assigned key worker who has dedicated time each week to work with them. The Challenge, Support and Intervention Plan case management process for prisoners at risk of violence is fully in place in all prisons. We are improving perimeter security and using other equipment such as body scanners to address the supply of drugs. We are giving officers tools like PAVA pepper spray and body-worn cameras to make their jobs safer. We have announced an extra £100 million for security, on top of the £70 million we were already spending to make prisons more secure and decent.

We are confident that these initiatives, together with the many other measures that we are taking to protect our staff, will reduce the level of violence in prisons.