Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department's budget is sufficient to fund the 1.7 per cent pay rise for prison officers without decreasing spending on other departmental responsibilities.

When the Government published its response to the sixteenth Prison Service Pay Review Body (PSPRB) report in September, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury (CST) set out that the pay award for prison officers will be funded from within existing budgets.