Prisons: Fires
(asked on 2nd October 2019) - View Source
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) staff and (b) prisoner (i) injuries, (ii) hospitalisations and (iii) fatalities involved fire events in prisons in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement.
The information requested is shown in the table below. Information for 2015 is not available due to system changes and identifying criteria.
| Prisoner Injuries | Prisoner Fatalities | Prisoner Hospitalisation | Staff Injuries | Staff Fatalities | Staff Hospitalisation |
|
2016 | 22 | 0 | 5 | 21 | 0 | 4 |
|
2017 | 64 | 0 | 30 | 52 | 0 | 33 |
|
2018 | 51 | 2 | 27 | 24 | 0 | 3 |
|
2019 | 29 | 1 | 27 | 18 | 0 | 3 |
|
We will never compromise on the safety of those in our care, and staff are trained to respond to emergency situations in a timely and appropriate manner. The Government is taking unprecedented action to improve safety in custody. This includes recruiting an additional 4,366 prison officers between October 2016 and June 2019 and we are investing £100 million, on top of the £70 million we have already invested, to make our prisons safer.
Independent investigations of fatalities are undertaken by the Prison and Probation Ombudsman. HM Prison and Probation Service is absolutely committed to controlling any form of ignition sources and combustible materials in prisons.