Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many assaults were reported on officers working on operation tornado deployments in each year since 2020.

Operation Tornado is a national mutual aid plan by which prisons support one another in the event of a serious incident or occurrence requiring a reinforcement of staff. Operation Tornado is employed by HMPPS for three main reasons:

• In response to a serious incident requiring a reinforcement of staff.
• In response to other events or crisis requiring additional staff, who may not necessarily need to be Tornado trained.
• To aid the transfer of prisoners in the event of a serious incident or the threat of one (with the GOLD commander’s agreement).

HMPPS have previously provided a summary of the number of Tornado deployments and staff available for Operation Tornado from 2018-2023 as part of a response to PQs 1898 1899 1900 1901.

As resource is pulled across the estate to provide mutual aid for serious incidents, HMPPS do not hold data centrally on the number of staff assaulted whilst on Tornado deployment. Whilst assaults data is collected, this is not stored in a manner which would enable HMPPS to determine whether the assault happened locally or as part of a Tornado deployment.