Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to increase retention levels of experienced prison officers.

In late 2021, the Ministry of Justice launched a retention toolkit to help Senior Leaders across HMPPS including Governors/Directors to tackle the main drivers of attrition in their departments and improve retention levels. We are using the data from enhanced exit interviews to better understand why experienced Prison Officers are leaving.

We made a significant investment in pay for prison staff through the 2023/24 pay award. This delivered an increase in base pay of at least 7% for all staff between bands 2 to 5 which includes Prison Officers.

Since April 2022, we have invested in several new initiatives to increase retention of our employees including Prison Officers. These include a new peer-to-peer learning scheme, the introduction of new staff mentors to support new Prison Officers in their roles, which takes the pressure off both experienced Prison Officers and managers, and a Career Pathways framework to enable staff to identify their development needs and career aspirations. We are also running supervision pilots in two prisons alongside the introduction of new leadership training, which will contribute to supporting career development and retention of experienced officers.