Select Committee

Letter from the Minister for Prisons and Probation, dated 23 November 2023 on the Publication of a review of Health and Social care in women’s prison

Correspondence Nov. 29 2023

Committee: Justice Committee (Department: Ministry of Justice)

Found: Letter from the Minister for Prisons and Probation, dated 23 November 2023 on the Publication of a review

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Written Question

Prisoners: Wales

Monday 18th December 2023

Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support female Welsh prisoners held in English prisons, both during and after their imprisonment, to reintegrate into the community.

Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

All women’s prisons have an embedded pre-release provision delivered by the Probation Service. The pre-release team liaise with the Community Probation Practitioner as allocated and support pre-release planning activity throughout the sentence. The teams will progress referrals that have been made to Commissioned Rehabilitative Service suppliers, including fast tracking services for women serving short sentences. This provision is provided for Welsh women in English prisons as part of the Women’s Pathfinder Whole System Approach (WSA), with a WSA Service Caseworker based in HMP Eastwood Park and Women's Partnership Integration Coordinators aligned to each Probation Delivery Unit area in Wales, helping to support inter-agency connection and coordination across women's services.

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Departmental Publication (Policy paper)
Ministry of Justice

May. 09 2024

Source Page: Female offender strategy delivery plan: progress report
Document: (ODS)

Found: COMPLETED We have filled 19 posts across women's prisons.

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Scheduled Event - 17 Jan 2024, 9:30 a.m.
View Source
Commons - Women and Equalities Committee - Oral evidence - Select & Joint Committees
The escalation of violence against women and girls

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Select Committee

Letter from Damien Hinds MP, Minister for Prisons and Probation, dated 14 September 2023, on the Publication of the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman Annual Report

Correspondence Oct. 17 2023

Committee: Justice Committee (Department: Ministry of Justice)

Found: Letter from Damien Hinds MP, Minister for Prisons and Probation, dated 14 September 2023, on the Publication

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Written Question

Prison Officers: Vacancies

Monday 22nd April 2024

Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many vacancies for band (a) three, (b) four and (c) five prison officers there are as of 16 April 2024, by (i) prison and (ii) region.

Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

We are doing more than ever to attract and retain the best staff, including boosting salaries and launching our first-ever nationwide advertising campaign. These efforts are working - we have over 4,800 FTE additional officers between March 2017 and December 2023 and retention rates for prison staff are improving.

Our latest published HMPPS workforce statistics present data up to 31 December 2023. While you have asked for data as at 16 April 2024, we are unable to provide data for periods following December 2023 as this could pre-empt the next set of published Staff in Post data, which will be released on Thursday 16 May 2024. Once updated staffing data have been published in May, including data up to 31 March 2024, we will then be able to consider questions related to vacancy data up to and including March 2024.

In December 2023, across the whole of the Public Sector Prison estate in England and Wales (including the Youth Custody Service) for Band 3-5 Prison Officers, Staff in Post was 63 FTE below the Target Staffing level. This figure is a combination of indicative vacancies at prisons with Staff in Post below their Target Staffing level and the indicative number of surplus staff at other prisons where Staff in Post is above their Target Staffing level. Where possible, prisons with surplus staff are likely to be sending those staff to work on Detached Duty at prisons with vacancies. At times, we have intentionally over-recruited in certain prisons or regions to give the system wider resilience and where prisons are not at their Target Staffing level. Use of Detached Duty, a long-standing mechanism to deploy staff from one prison or region to support another, is also not reflected in the indicative vacancies number.

In December 2023, there were just under 790 FTE Band 3-5 Prison Officer indicative vacancies across individual Public Sector Prison establishments in England and Wales, where Staff in Post was below their Target Staffing level, and just over 720 FTE indicative number of surplus staff across individual Public Sector Prison establishments, in establishments where Staff in Post was above their Target Staffing level.

Table One (below) shows the total Band 3, Band 4 and Band 5 Prison Officer indicative vacancies (FTE) across Public Sector Prisons England & Wales, by region, as of December 2023. Table Two attached shows total Band 3, Band 4 and Band 5 Prison Officer indicative vacancies (FTE) across Public Sector Prisons England & Wales, by region, December 2023.

Table One: Total Band 3, Band 4 and Band 5 Prison Officer indicative vacancies (FTE) across Public Sector Prisons England & Wales, by region (summed from the establishment level in Annex A), December 2023
Region	Band 3 Indicative Vacancies	Band 4 Indicative Vacancies	Band 5 Indicative Vacancies
Avon, South Dorset and Wiltshire Prisons	30	6	5
Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk Prisons	10	13	6
Cumbria & Lancashire Prisons	0	6	5
Devon and North Dorset Prisons	12	3	0
East Midlands Prisons	22	7	14
Greater Manchester, Merseyside & Cheshire Prisons	0	8	4
Hertfordshire, Essex and Suffolk Prisons	11	8	0
Kent, Surrey and Sussex Prisons	59	10	9
London Prisons	13	36	22
Long Term High Security Estate - North	12	23	7
Long Term High Security Estate - South	259	49	33
North East Prisons	0	12	10
North Midlands Prisons	0	8	7
South Central Prisons	48	25	7
West Midlands Prisons	0	10	15
Women's Prison Group	25	3	9
Yorkshire Prisons	4	4	10
Youth Custody Services*	-	-	31
Wales	36	4	1
	541	237	196

* In addition, there were 76 FTE vacancies across the Band 3 and 4 grades combined for the Youth Custody Services. In the Youth Custody Services there are a considerable number of staff employed at Band 3 grade working against the Band 4 target as they work towards becoming Band 4 Youth Justice Workers. As a result, we have merged the Band 3 and 4 grades for these five institutions.

Notes on data in this response

1. All data is taken from Workforce Planning Tool returns and shows the average position across the month (as of December 2023), adjusted for joiners and leavers in the month.
2. Data only covers Public Sector Prison establishments (including the four Young Offenders Institutions (Cookham Wood, Feltham, Werrington and Wetherby)) in England and Wales (and the Youth Custody Service) and will not reflect any Band 3 – 5 Prison Officers who are working in headquarters establishments (e.g. area offices), Public Sector Prisons in Wales or Privately Managed Prisons.
3. Workforce Planning Tool returns are manually completed by staff in prisons each month and, as with any manual returns, are subject to human error.
4. Indicative vacancies are the difference between Target Staffing levels and Staff in Post across the entire Public Sector Prison estate in England and Wales at prisons (and the Youth Custody Service) with Staff in Post below their Target Staffing level. Indicative surpluses are the difference between Target Staffing levels and Staff in Post across the entire Public Sector Prison estate in England and Wales (and the Youth Custody Service) at prisons where Staff in Post is above their Target Staffing level.
5. In Table One we have summed indicative vacancies at the Public Sector Prison establishment level to produce the table showing indicative vacancies at the regional level.
6. Target Staffing level is the number of staff required to run an optimal regime in each prison. This level is greater than the minimum number of staff required for a prison to operate safely, and includes allowances for staff taking leave, being off sick or being on training.
7. The Target Staffing Figures are set on a site-specific basis and vary in size.
8. Band 3-5 Officers includes Band 3-4 / Prison Officers (including specialists), Band 4 / Supervising Officers, and Band 5 / Custodial Managers.
9. Target Staffing levels are established based on a 39-hour working week. Staff in Post (FTE) is set at 1.0 FTE for those on a 39-hour contract / 1.05 FTE for those on a 41-hour contract and 0.95 FTE for those on a 37-hour contract.
10. Target Staffing levels cannot be used to directly calculate vacancies due to the discretion governors have to change establishment level staffing requirements through Governors' Freedoms. As a result, the MoJ does not currently regularly present vacancy data and the data presented should be treated as indicative.
11. Staff in Post data used to calculate an indicative number of vacancies does not take into account those on long-term absences (e.g. career breaks) / loans / secondments / agency staff or other forms of overtime.
12. There will be some prisons in our data who appear to have a surplus of staff at the Band 3 or Band 4 grades whereas in reality some of these staff are temporarily promoted to more senior grades. Temporary promotions will not be visible in this data and so these roles will appear as vacancies.

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Select Committee

Women for a Free Iran

MENA0032 - The UK’s engagement with the Middle East and North Africa

Written Evidence Dec. 18 2023

Inquiry: The UK’s engagement with the Middle East and North Africa
Inquiry Status: Closed
Committee: Foreign Affairs Committee (Department: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office)

Found: Introduction Women's rights in Iran have long been a subject of international concern and scrutiny.

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Written Question

Young Offenders: Women

Monday 11th September 2023

Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Streatham)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether the Young Women's Strategy will include policies to help tackle (a) trauma, (b) gender, (c) age and (d) cultural challenges faced by young women.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

The Young Women’s Strategy forms part of the Female Offender Strategy Delivery Plan, which sets out what we will deliver over the period 2022-25. We do not yet have a specific publication date.

We are running young women’s residential pilots in two women’s prisons: learning from these will inform the Young Women’s Strategy. We will also be engaging with a wide range of stakeholders, including specialist organisations and young women with lived experience.

The Female Offender Strategy Delivery Plan exemplifies the Government’s commitment to take a gender-specific and trauma-responsive approach that acknowledges the impact of neglect and abuse (as well as other forms of trauma) on health, mental health and behaviour. In developing the Young Women’s Strategy we will have due regard to issues of age and race.

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Select Committee

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales

PIW0013 - Prisons in Wales

Written Evidence Jan. 17 2024

Inquiry: Prisons in Wales
Inquiry Status: Closed
Committee: Welsh Affairs Committee (Department: Wales Office)

Found: PIW0013 - Prisons in Wales The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales Written Evidence

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