Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Mary Glindon and Kit Malthouse

Tuesday 14th December 2021 Commons Chamber

[Mary Glindon (North Tyneside) (Lab)]

4. What assessment he has made of the adequacy of the recruitment and retention of prison and probation officers.

[The Minister for Crime and Policing (Kit Malthouse)]

Since October 2016, band 3 to 5 prison officer numbers have increased by more than 4,000 from 17,955 to 22,325 full-time equivalents. In the year to March 2021, we recruited more than 1,000 trainee probation officers and we will recruit a further 1,500 by the end of March next year.

[Mary Glindon]

The prisons White Paper concedes that attrition rates among prison officers are too high,

“causing an unsustainable level of turnover in the system… contributing to a vicious cycle of staff dissatisfaction and lack of retention.”

With even the Prison Service’s new retention framework conceding that low wages are key driver of attrition, when will the Minister stand up for both prison officers and probation officers and give them the proper pay rise the Government’s own experts recommend?

[Kit Malthouse]

We do recognise that attrition among prison officers is an issue, which is why we have put in place retention toolkits in prisons, providing governors with the support and tools that they need for employee retention. As far as pay is concerned, the hon. Lady knows that the economic ravages of the pandemic meant that there did need to be a pause in pay, but now that the Department has received a three-year spending settlement, it means that we can commence more coherent conversations with unions and others about what pay might look like in the years to come.

Ten-Year Drugs Strategy

Debate between Mary Glindon and Kit Malthouse

Monday 6th December 2021 Commons Chamber

[Kit Malthouse]

My hon. Friend is exactly right. The practice of cuckooing, particularly where it targets often vulnerable adults in a destination drug-dealing town or village, is a really horrible thing to witness and often results in violence and victimisation. The £145 million that we are putting in to turbocharge our effort on county lines, making sure that the big exporting forces are co-ordinated through the national county lines co-ordination centre with the importing forces, will allow us to get ahead of exactly the kind of exploitation that my hon. Friend points to.

[Mary Glindon (North Tyneside) (Lab)]

The drugs, alcohol and justice cross-party parliamentary group fully supports Dame Carol’s recommendations as key. Will the Minister meet the group to discuss how treatment providers and service users can be actively consulted to make sure that the strategy works?

[Kit Malthouse]

I would be happy to take that meeting.