Imran Hussain
Main Page: Imran Hussain (Independent - Bradford East)Department Debates - View all Imran Hussain's debates with the Ministry of Justice
(6 years, 7 months ago)
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Imran Hussain (Bradford East) (Lab)
I am astonished that the Secretary of State can come here and appear somewhat triumphant. Let us be absolutely clear: this Government cut 7,000 prisoner officers, so there are still 4,000 fewer than there were in 2010. When does he expect prison staff numbers to return to 2010 levels?
Mr Gauke
I suspect that you, Mr Speaker, would stop me if we started a debate on the state of the public finances in 2010 and the difficult decisions that had to be taken as a result of the situation we inherited. The reality is that since October 2016 we have been recruiting more prison officers, we are ahead of what we said we would do and we are continuing to recruit prison officers. That is really important to ensure that prisons operate as they should.