Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, on (a) how many occasions and (b) what dates the operational routine at HMP Woodhill has been suspended to facilitate the clearing of outstanding adjudications since 1 January 2023.

The adjudication process, which is set out in Prison Service Instruction (PSI) 05/2018 Prison adjudications policy Prison adjudications policy: PSI 05/2018 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) provides guidance to staff on prisoner discipline procedures including Minor Reports, and handling the recovery of monies from prisoners to pay for any damage they cause to prisons or prison property.

The number and proportion of outstanding adjudication in the each of the last 12 months at HMP Woodhill are provided in the table below:

To help reduce the number of outstanding adjudications at HMP Woodhill the following steps have been taken:

The population has been reduced by 190 prisoners in order to relieve the pressure on the limited staffing resources at HMP Woodhill. The effect of this will also enable staffing levels to escort prisoners to adjudications, and release reporting officers and witnesses which will improve the level of completions. Many adjournments are caused by staff not being able to be released to attend.

Monthly ‘adjudication action days’ have been implemented, where wings are set up to simultaneously conduct remanded adjudications for prisoners across four units. This can conclude approximately 80 adjudications in a single day.

With improved staffing comes improved use of sanctions within the Incentives and Earned Privileges (IEP) process which allows staff credible alternatives to use the IEP system for prisoners on low level poor behaviour as set out in the Incentives Policy Framework: Incentives Policy Framework - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

There has been no requirement to suspend the operational running of the establishment to address the backlog of adjudications.

The timeline for staff sickness has seen a significant reduction over the last 12 months at HMP Woodhill, with a 33% reduction since the same time last year. Additionally, staff morale can also be assessed through resignation rates which have also reduced significantly over the last 12 months, with a 43 % reduction since the previous quarter.

Local data demonstrates a reduction in all incidents of indiscipline. Prisoner on prisoner assaults have reduced 23% from same time period in 2022/23 and assaults on staff are 34% lower than same time period in 2022/23.

The prison has already taken the following steps to drive improvement:

• Received support from the Standards Coaching Team, which provides prisons with advice to improve standards in priority locations.
• Temporarily reduced capacity to free up resources and support stability
• Been supported by a range of internal and external bodies to improve leadership and provide safety related training.
• Employed two New Colleague Mentors, dedicated to helping new starters settle into working in a prison in their first weeks and months in post.