Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether (a) prison officers and (b) operational support grades are required to have a face-to-face interview as part of the recruitment process.

As part of the Online Assessment Centre (OAC), all Prison Officers have an online face-to-face interview.

We are, however, supportive of prisons bolstering the recruitment process locally with outreach activity to build awareness, whilst also proactively engaging with candidates before they begin work to help the onboarding process.

The recruitment of Operational Support Grades (OSG) involves an in-person interview at the establishment to which the candidate has applied to.