Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to her oral contribution of 15 November 2016, Official Report, column 131, what her policy is on the introduction of a programme to re-recruit prison officers who have recently left the service on temporary contracts.

We currently offer permanent flexible contracts to ex-prison officers under the HMPS Reserve Scheme which was established in November 2015. This was preceded by a Fixed-Term Contract project to recruit ex-officers which ran between 2014 and 2015.

Under the HMPS Reserve Scheme, we offer a permanent flexible contract to prison officers who have left voluntarily within the preceding 2 years. These staff will work flexibly to meet the needs of the estate. This helps to support the current operational workforce across the estate and to complement existing methods for meeting the staffing needs of prisons around the country.

HMPS Reserve staff provide a valuable flexible resource for NOMS by supporting prison regimes. Former prison officers can also request to be re-employed. Under the Civil Service Commission Recruitment Principles we can re appoint those who have left within the last 5 years.