Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the average number of prison officers on detached duty in each month in 2015 and 2016 to date.

Safety is our number one priority – The deployment of staff between prisons on detached duty is a regular and normal part of prison resourcing. It allows staff to be allocated from prisons with the capacity to provide them, to those where additional staffing is required. In November the Secretary of State announced an extra 2500 additional prison officers to tackle safety in the estate. The table below sets out the average number of prison officers on detached duty by month in 2015 and 2016: