Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, of the planned recruitment of new prison staff, what the estimated change will be in staff-to-prisoner ratios in (1) public sector, and (2) private, prisons.

We want our prisons to be places where staff and prisoners alike feel safe and secure. The introduction of new ways of working to support prisoners to reform will achieve this while also increasing frontline staff numbers.

Prison Governors will be empowered to set their establishment staffing numbers. They will determine the precise grade mix and deployment of staff into their establishment to meet the individual needs of their specific prisoner population, in line with set minimum service requirements which are aligned to the NOMS Offender Management model. Staff numbers will vary across establishments, dependant on prisoner population and type of prison.

We have already invested £14 million to provide more than 400 extra staff in ten of the most challenging prisons and work is underway to finalise the new staffing levels required for each of these establishments.