Asked by: Madeleine Moon (Labour - Bridgend)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of changing the eligibility criteria for prison officer long service medals to enable officers employed in privately managed prisons to receive them; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The Prison Service’s (operational duties) Long Service and Good Conduct Medal is awarded to operational staff in UK Prison Services on completion of 20 years continuous service. The medals are awarded by HM The Queen and aligns operational public sector prison staff with other comparable other front line public services such as the police, fire and ambulance services, and the Armed Forces.
HMPPS has previously approached the Cabinet Office in relation to making this medal available to staff in private sector prisons. The Cabinet Office confirmed that there are a series of protocols concerning the issue of medals of this type, one of which is that they can only be awarded to staff working in public sector prisons (civil servants) and not those prisons run by private sector companies.
Asked by: Madeleine Moon (Labour - Bridgend)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many long service medals have been awarded in each of the last five years to prison officers; what the cost was of awarding each medal; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The number of operational prison staff in public sectors prisons who were awarded Prison Services (operational duties) Long Service & Good Conduct medals in each of the last 5 years is shown in the table below.
| Number of operational prison staff who received a long service medal | |
| 2015 | 841 |
| 2016 | 415 |
| 2017 | 603 |
| 2018 | 828 |
| 2019 (up to 30/09/2019) | 523 |
Includes operational prison staff from Band 2 to Band 11
Prison Services (operational duties) Long Service & Good Conduct Medals are manufactured by the Royal Mint at a cost of £27 (+VAT) per medal.
These medals recognise the loyalty, commitment and unique role of operational prison staff in the United Kingdom prison services.