Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of prison workforce numbers.

We know that sufficient and skilled frontline staffing is fundamental to delivering safe, secure, and rehabilitative prison regimes. In England and Wales, we are currently above our target staffing levels for prison officers, although challenges remain in some sites with higher numbers of vacancies. Recruitment efforts will continue at all sites with a current or projected future need, and we have a number of targeted recruitment interventions that can be deployed where needed. Where establishments feel that their staffing levels will affect stability or regime, we look to provide short-term tactical support.

HMPPS has also commissioned a workforce delivery project to refresh the current staffing model for prisons, and to help improve our analysis of resource allocation across the system, so we are better able to prioritise our staff resources to improve delivery.