Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison officers in each prison are deployed with rigid handcuffs.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
We are rolling out rigid-bar handcuffs to prison officers as part of our continued focus on improving safety and reducing violence.
Before a prison can deploy rigid bar handcuffs, all uniformed staff must be trained in their use. At the moment, only HMP Stoke Heath has completed its training, and 153 staff have been issued with rigid-bar handcuffs. At HMP Brinsford 43 staff have completed their training, with a further 13 to be trained by the end of this week. Other prisons are also at various stages of delivering their training.
In addition to these deployments, rigid-bar handcuffs are also carried by staff of the National Tactical Response Group and by Regional Search and Dog teams, as part of the operational response to incidents.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of assaults on prison officers by prisoners resulted in a prosecution in each year since 2010.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Detailed information on the proportion of assaults on prison staff since 2010 is held on court record but to be able to identify these cases we would have to access individual court records which would be of disproportionate cost.
We take violence against our staff very seriously. We have invested in 5,600 Body Worn Video Cameras (BWVC) across the prison estate which has been rolled out alongside training in staff interaction with prisoners, to support better relationships. We have also begun implementation for a national rollout of PAVA, a synthetic pepper spray, which will provide prison officers with additional safety equipment to reduce the risk of serious injury.
Staff will be able to use the PAVA spray where there is serious violence or an imminent or perceived risk of it and there is an immediate necessity to create a safe and protective environment. Only prisons who have rolled out the key worker scheme – which is vital in building relationships between offenders and staff – will receive PAVA.
Alongside the rollout of PAVA will be the introduction of a new Personal Safety package; (S.P.E.A.R.). This is to ensure that PAVA is introduced as part of a wider package of skills for staff to resolve and deescalate incidents. The training is based on using the body’s natural flinch reaction when faced with danger and focuses on pre-contact cues to give staff greater awareness of their surroundings. We are also rolling out rigid bar handcuffs to prison officers as part of our continued focus on improving safety and reducing violence.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many successful prosecutions for assaults on prison officers by prisoners on resulted in a sentence of (a) of less than one month, (b) between one and three months, (c) between three and six months and (d) more than 12 months in each year since 2010.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Detailed information on how many successful prosecutions for assaults on prison officers by prisoners that resulted in a sentence of (a) of less than one month, (b) between one and three months, (c) between three and six months and (d) more than 12 months since 2010 is held on court record but to be able to identify these cases we would have to access individual court records which would be of disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of successful prosecutions for assaults by prisoners on prison officers resulted in a (a) concurrent sentence and (b) consecutive sentence in each year since 2010.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Detailed information on the proportion of successful prosecutions for assaults by prisoners on prison officers that resulted in a (a) concurrent sentence and (b) consecutive sentence since 2010 is held on court record but to be able to identify these cases we would have to access individual court records which would be of disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many providers are listed on the Dynamic Purchasing System for education in prison.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
As at 15 October 2019, there were 282 suppliers on the prison education Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) with 146 contracts awarded.
The DPS enables prison governors to commission innovative, specialist or one-off education programmes for their establishment.
As set out in the Education and Employment Strategy, launched in May 2018, significant changes to the delivery arrangements for prison education took full effect from April 2019. From that point, governors took control of their establishment’s education budget, determined the curriculum on offer, how it is structured, and decided who their education providers will be.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many band 3-5 prison officers were temporarily transferred from other prisons to prisons in his Ten Prisons Project.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Detached duty (DD) is one of the sensible and proportionate measures we take to ensure we run safe and decent regimes in prisons and respond appropriately to any operational issues that arise. The deployment of staff between prisons on DD is a regular and normal part of prison resourcing and the number of prison officers deployed will reflect operational circumstances.
Of the 10 prisons in the 10 Prisons Project, only one prison – HMP Wormwood Scrubs - received band 3-5 prison officers from other establishments between August 2018 and August 2019. The table below shows the number and cycle of staff deployed to Wormwood Scrubs during the life of the project. Detached duty is allocated on a cycle (four week average) rather than on a month-by-month basis.
Detached duty cycle | Headcount |
6th May – 2nd June 2019 | 3 |
28th July – 24th Aug 2019 | 12 |
25th Aug – 21st Sept 2019 | 20 |
Total | 35 |
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many band 3 to 5 prison officers in each female prison have less than two years' experience.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The number of band 3 to 5 prison officers in each female prison with less than two years' experience are given in the following Table 1.
Table 1 - Number of Band 3-5 Prison Officers1 (Full Time Equivalent) in each female prison with less than two years’ Length of Service2 - as at 30th June 2019
Female Prison | |
Askham Grange | 10 |
Downview | 39 |
Drake Hall | 19 |
East Sutton Park | 0 |
Eastwood Park | 36 |
Foston Hall | 34 |
Low Newton | 30 |
New Hall | 31 |
Send | 31 |
Styal | 73 |
Notes
2. Length of service in HMPPS calculated from most recent hire date. Where staff have transferred in from another Government Department or have transferred in through HMPPS taking over a function, length of service is calculated from entry to HMPPS.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many contracts are listed on the Dynamic Purchasing System for education in prisons.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
As at 15 October 2019, there were 282 suppliers on the prison education Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) with 146 contracts awarded.
The DPS enables prison governors to commission innovative, specialist or one-off education programmes for their establishment.
As set out in the Education and Employment Strategy, launched in May 2018, significant changes to the delivery arrangements for prison education took full effect from April 2019. From that point, governors took control of their establishment’s education budget, determined the curriculum on offer, how it is structured, and decided who their education providers will be.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of children remanded in custody in 2018 (a) received a custodial sentence, (b) were acquitted and (c) were charged with a violent offence.
Answered by Wendy Morton
In response to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse report, we committed to undertake further work to consider the use of youth custodial remand in greater detail. Within the next year, we aim to identify options to reduce the numbers of children remanded to custody where appropriate, while ensuring victims and the public are protected.
The Ministry of Justice has published information on individuals who were remanded in custody during court proceedings. Information on the age of those prosecuted, the type of crimes and the outcome of prosecution can be found by using the Remands: Magistrates’ Court data tool available here:
and the Remands: Crown Court data tool available here:
Individuals may have different remand status at different courts (e.g. at magistrates’ and Crown courts), the status given in these tools relates only to the remand status at that specific court. As a result, court totals should not be combined. With this in mind, the answers to questions a, b and c should be considered independently in each data tool.
Note that we have answered question (c) based on the number of prosecutions as MoJ do not hold data on charges and interpreted ‘children’ as being juveniles, therefore aged 10-17 years old.
In the Magistrates’ Court data tool:
Use the ‘Age Group’ filter and select juveniles. Use ‘the Row Labels’ option on row 28 to select ’03: Custody’. Use the ‘Outcome’ filter to de-select ’01: FTA’, ’06: Committed for trail’ and ’07: Committed for sentence’
In the Crown Court data tool:
Use the ‘Age Group’ filter and select juveniles. Use ‘the Row Labels’ option on row 29 to select ’03: Custody’. Use the ‘Outcome’ filter to de-select ’01: FTA’.
Please note: Children classified as remanded in custody may include individuals who were remanded to local authority accommodation rather than youth detention accommodation.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many dynamic purchasing system contracts for education have been entered into by each prison since 1 April 2019.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Information on the number of Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) contracts entered into since 1st April 2019 and the total value of DPS contracts entered into since 1st April 2019, by prison, is provided in the attached table.
As set out in the Education and Employment Strategy in May last year, significant changes to the delivery arrangements for prison education took full effect from April 2019. From that point, governors took control of their establishment’s education budget, determined the curriculum on offer and how it is structured and organised, and decided who their education providers will be.
Prison governors commission core and bespoke education provision through two new routes: the Prison Education Framework (PEF) and the prison education DPS. The DPS enables governors to commission innovative, specialist or one-off education provision for their establishment.