Prisons: Pepper Spray
(asked on 8th November 2021) - View Source
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people have been held in prisons where pelargonic acid vanillylamide (PAVA) incapacitant spray has been issued, broken down by (1) ethnicity, (2) religion, and (3) disability status, since 1 April 2019.
PAVA is presently in 80 HMPPS prisons *, the below tables provide population figures across those 80 prisons firstly by ethnicity and secondly by religion. We are unable to provide this breakdown for disability as data is not available.
Note* The 80 prisons comprises 26 live sites which have issued to over 50% of their staff and the remainder have only issued to a small number of staff as part of an exceptional deployment.
Table 1: Prisoners held in prisons where pelargonic acid vanillylamide (PAVA) incapacitant spray has been issued, by ethnicity, March 2019 - September 2021, in England and Wales | ||||||
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| 31-Mar-19 | 30-Sep-19 | 31-Mar-20 | 30-Sep-20 | 31-Mar-21 | 30-Sep-21 |
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All | 59,070 | 59,958 | 59,657 | 57,223 | 56,594 | 57,224 |
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Asian / Asian British | 4,599 | 4,642 | 4,635 | 4,464 | 4,534 | 4,709 |
Black / African / Caribbean / Black British | 7,786 | 7,964 | 7,839 | 7,615 | 7,541 | 7,494 |
Mixed / Multiple ethnic groups | 2,724 | 2,808 | 2,848 | 2,803 | 2,758 | 2,764 |
Other ethnic group | 918 | 916 | 932 | 888 | 853 | 858 |
White | 42,624 | 43,228 | 42,912 | 40,918 | 40,399 | 40,869 |
Not recorded | 240 | 236 | 320 | 376 | 314 | 354 |
Not stated | 179 | 164 | 171 | 159 | 195 | 176 |
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Table 2: Prisoners held in prisons where pelargonic acid vanillylamide (PAVA) incapacitant spray has been issued, by religion, March 2019 - September 2021, in England and Wales | ||||||
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| 31-Mar-19 | 30-Sep-19 | 31-Mar-20 | 30-Sep-20 | 31-Mar-21 | 30-Sep-21 |
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All | 59,070 | 59,958 | 59,657 | 57,223 | 56,594 | 57,224 |
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Anglican | 9,751 | 9,750 | 9,522 | 8,866 | 8,391 | 8,223 |
Free Church | 505 | 535 | 547 | 559 | 539 | 531 |
Roman Catholic | 10,380 | 10,453 | 10,386 | 9,873 | 9,547 | 9,723 |
Other Christian | 7,741 | 7,828 | 7,584 | 7,302 | 7,350 | 7,570 |
Muslim | 9,612 | 9,920 | 10,096 | 9,953 | 10,202 | 10,424 |
Hindu | 263 | 271 | 271 | 237 | 247 | 256 |
Sikh | 431 | 399 | 406 | 365 | 344 | 349 |
Buddhist | 1,181 | 1,183 | 1,227 | 1,171 | 1,135 | 1,104 |
Jewish | 363 | 406 | 406 | 395 | 384 | 383 |
Other religious groups | 1,345 | 1,420 | 1,433 | 1,410 | 1,366 | 1,362 |
Other non-recognised | 7 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 5 |
No religion | 17,381 | 17,702 | 17,676 | 16,879 | 16,843 | 17,120 |
Not recorded | 110 | 86 | 97 | 207 | 241 | 174 |
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Data sources and quality
The figures in these tables have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
Source: Prison NOMIS System
PQ HL3793 (Ministry of Justice; DASD-DES)