Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has received representations from prison leaders on (a) unsafe staffing levels and (b) regime restrictions as a result of increased levels of staff absence linked to recent fuel shortages.

As a contingency, we remained in close contact with senior leaders across Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) in the period where there were difficulties getting fuel to petrol stations. No groups reported staff having difficulty in reporting to work, or any subsequent regime or probation delivery difficulties as a result. There were no reports of people on probation encountering problems travelling to their appointments in the community as a result of these shortages.