Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what targets his Department has set for recruiting Black and ethnic minority staff to the prison service; and what progress his Department has made on achieving those targets.

In response to recommendation 28 of the Lammy Review 2017, HMPPS committed to a target of 14% of all staff recruited being from a Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) background by December 2020.

The latest published workforce statistics evidences information on recruitment diversity statistics. The following outcomes have been identified:

• All Prison Officer Entry Levels: BAME candidates made up 18.2% of applicants and 11.0% of formal offers accepted between July 2018 and June 2020. These proportions varied over the quarters ranging from 14.5% to 29.9% for applicants, and 7.1% to 17.6% for offers formally accepted.

­- Public Sector Prison Officers: BAME candidates made up 17.4% of applicants and 10.7% of formal offers accepted between July 2018 and June 2020. These proportions varied over the quarters ranging from 12.0% to 25.2% for applicants and 7.1% to 17.2% for offers accepted.

­- Youth Custody Services Prison Officers: BAME candidates made up 31.9% of applicants and 22.7% of formal offers accepted over the whole period.

• Officer Support Grades: BAME candidates made up 18.8% of applicants and 12.6% of formal offers accepted, with large variations between the quarters.

While the proportion of prison staff from diverse backgrounds is gradually rising, we recognise we must continue to do more. We continue to work hard to increase diversity in our prison workforce by ensuring we are listening and acting on the views of staff, making adjustments to selection processes to address any areas of disparity and targeting our efforts on areas which may not have a representative workforce.