Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to paragraph 5.17 of the Autumn Statement 2016, how much of the £500 million of extra funding to enable the recruitment of 2,500 extra prison officers and wider reforms will be spent on (a) recruitment costs, (b) salaries, (c) pensions and (d) wider reforms.

The Justice Secretary announced major reforms to the prison system in the Prison Safety and White Paper published on 3 November, to cut reoffending and help reduce crime.

As announced at Autumn Statement last month, £100 million annually will be allocated to the Ministry of Justice to implement measures to improve safety in prisons and wider reforms to the whole criminal justice system. We will be investing more than £100 million to recruit, train and pay for an additional 2,500 prison officers, helping us to implement the new dedicated prison officer role.