Prison Officers - Written Answers

Written Question

Prisons: Staff

Thursday 25th April 2024

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

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 18 April 2024 to Question 21066 on Prisons: Civil Disorder, how may Tornado trained officers each prison should aim to have trained.

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

Operation Tornado is a national mutual aid plan by which prisons support one another in the event of a serious incident or occurrence requiring a reinforcement of staff. Operation Tornado is employed by HMPPS for three main reasons:

In response to a serious incident requiring a reinforcement of staff.
In response to other events or crisis requiring additional staff, who may not necessarily need to be Tornado trained.
To aid the transfer of prisoners in the event of a serious incident or the threat of one (with the GOLD commander’s agreement).

HMPPS aims to have 2,100 volunteers trained in readiness for Operation Tornado. Since the inception of Operation Tornado in the late 1980s, HMPPS has allocated a commitment to each prison for how many Tornado staff they should have trained. HMPPS monitors the number of staff available for deployment and offer training spaces to ensure resilience to respond to serious incidents.

In the event of a serious incident, all prisons, including those who have a commitment of zero, receive the same level of support from the Operation Response and Resilience Unit and Tornado trained staff from other prisons if required.

The requested information is in the table attached.

Written Question

Prison Officers: Resignations

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 prison officers who joined in 2023 resigned within (a) 14 and (b) 30 days of the start of their employment.

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

The quarterly HMPPS workforce statistics publication covers staffing information, including joiners and leavers, and the latest publication covers data up to 31 December 2023.

In the 12 months to 31 December 2023 there were 5,066 Band 3-5 Prison Officers1 who joined2 HMPPS. Of these, 66 resigned3,4 within the period up to and including 14 days, and an additional 33 resigned3,4 in the period of 15 days to 30 days after joining.

Notes

1. Includes Bands 3-4 / Prison Officer (incl specialists), Band 4 / Supervising Officer and Band 5 / Custodial Managers.

2. New recruits joining HMPPS - does not include internal transfers or conversions.

3. Resignation date taken as the last day of service. Date that resignation handed in is not available.

4. Staff who left for other reasons are not included.

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

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.
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.
Workforce Planning Tool returns are manually completed by staff in prisons each month and, as with any manual returns, are subject to human error.
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.
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.
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.
The Target Staffing Figures are set on a site-specific basis and vary in size.
Band 3-5 Officers includes Band 3-4 / Prison Officers (including specialists), Band 4 / Supervising Officers, and Band 5 / Custodial Managers.
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.
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.
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.
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.

Written Question

Prisons: Crimes of Violence

Monday 22nd April 2024

Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison staff required hospital treatment following a prisoner assault in each year since 2015.

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

The number of incidents of a prisoner assault leading to a prison staff member requiring hospital treatment 2018-2022 can be found in the attached table. Data on staff assaults for the calendar year 2023 is subject to future publication on 25 April, in ‘Safety in custody: quarterly update to December 2023’.

Changes were made to the recording of assaults in April 2017 that affects the reporting of hospitalisation. This change means that a comparable time series for this question can only be provided from 2018 onwards.

Staff must be able to expect a safe and decent work environment. We will not tolerate any violence against prison officers, and prisoners who are violent towards staff will face the full consequences of their actions.

We are committed to making prisons a safe place to work and providing prison officers with the right support, training and tools to empower them to do their jobs.

To protect staff and prisoners in very serious assaults, we have rolled out PAVA – a synthetic pepper spray – for use by prison officers in the adult male estate. Staff are able to use the PAVA spray where there is serious violence or an imminent or perceived risk of it.

We have rolled out a new Body Worn Video Camera system which has increased the overall number of cameras across public sector prisons to over 13,000. This enables every operational band 3-5 officer on shift to wear a camera. They are supported by a new Policy Framework which mandates the wearing of the cameras.

Written Question

Five Wells Prison: Staff

Thursday 18th 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 prison (a) officers and (b) other staff have been (i) investigated, (ii) arrested and (iii) charged in relation to (A) drug smuggling and (B) corruption at HMP Five Wells in the last 18 months.

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

There is no place for any form of corruption or unacceptable behaviour in the Prison Service. Such behaviour is contrary to our core values and will not be tolerated. The Ministry of Justice’s Counter Corruption Unit and Tackling Unacceptable Behaviour Unit are working to ensure that professional standards of behaviour are maintained.

In relation to the various items of information requested, it is necessary to consider whether providing information in relation to a small number of cases could lead to the identification of individuals, in a way that would constitute a breach of our statutory obligations under data protection legislation. As we believe that the release of this information would risk such identification, it is not possible to provide the figures requested.

Written Question

Prisons: Civil Disorder

Thursday 18th April 2024

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

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to page 14 of the document published by HM Prison Service on 31 August 2005 entitled Use of Force, whether his Department has previously had a policy of ensuring each prison had a minimum commitment for the number of Operation Tornado officers trained in each prison.

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

In response to a serious incident requiring a reinforcement of staff.
In response to other events or crisis requiring additional staff, who may not necessarily need to be Tornado trained.
To aid the transfer of prisoners in the event of a serious incident or the threat of one (with the GOLD commander’s agreement).

HMPPS aims to have 2,100 volunteers trained in readiness for Operation Tornado. Since the inception of Operation Tornado in the late 1980s, HMPPS has allocated a commitment to each prison for how many Tornado staff they should aim to have trained. HMPPS monitors the number of staff available for deployment and offer training spaces to ensure resilience to respond to serious incidents.

Written Question

Prisons: Civil Disorder

Thursday 18th April 2024

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

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether HM Prison and Probation Service has made an assessment of the safety of (a) prisoners and (b) prison officers in prisons that do not have Tornado trained staff.

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

In response to a serious incident requiring a reinforcement of staff.
In response to other events or crisis requiring additional staff, who may not necessarily need to be Tornado trained.
To aid the transfer of prisoners in the event of a serious incident or the threat of one (with the GOLD commander’s agreement).

HMPPS aims to have 2,100 volunteers trained in readiness for Operation Tornado. Since the inception of Operation Tornado in the late 1980s, HMPPS has allocated a commitment to each prison for how many Tornado staff they should aim to have trained. HMPPS monitors the number of staff available for deployment and offer training spaces to ensure resilience to respond to serious incidents.

Written Question

Berwyn Prison: Staff

Thursday 18th April 2024

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

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

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

Written Question

Wandsworth Prison: Fires

Wednesday 17th April 2024

Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many incidents of cell fires there have been in HMP Wandsworth in each year since 2010.

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

The number of fire incidents at HMP Wandsworth in each year since 2015 are shown in the table below. Information on fire incidents before 2015 is not available, because the records have been destroyed in line with our retention policy.

HMP Wandsworth Fire Incidents
Calendar Year	Fires
2015	53
2016	66
2017	105
2018	36
2019	45
2020	47
2021	52
2022	103
2023	78

The overwhelming majority of the cell fires were considered ‘minor’ and quickly dealt with by staff, and medical assessment is provided for anyone who may have been exposed to smoke or heat. Since 2015, in most years 100% of the fires were considered as minor, and in all years over 95% were considered as minor. Where it is found that a fire is the result of arson, or of recklessness, the prisoner responsible will face robust punitive action, which can include further criminal charges.

All operational staff receive Respiratory Protective Equipment training. Prison officers receive it as part of their Prison Officer Entry Level Training.

To promote staff awareness and proficiency, the Governor of HMP Wandsworth has arranged for an additional refresher training session to be delivered each week.

Written Question

Wandsworth Prison: Protective Clothing

Wednesday 17th April 2024

Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to increase the percentage of prison officers at HMP Wandsworth trained in the use of respiratory protective equipment.

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

HMP Wandsworth Fire Incidents
Calendar Year	Fires
2015	53
2016	66
2017	105
2018	36
2019	45
2020	47
2021	52
2022	103
2023	78

All operational staff receive Respiratory Protective Equipment training. Prison officers receive it as part of their Prison Officer Entry Level Training.

To promote staff awareness and proficiency, the Governor of HMP Wandsworth has arranged for an additional refresher training session to be delivered each week.

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