Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 21 November 2022 to Question 88986 on Prisons, whether a Regime Management Plan is required by health and safety policies for (a) staff and (b) prisoners.

All prisons must have in place a robust and workable Regime Management Plan (RMP), which has been consulted upon and agreed via the local Health and Safety Committee. This will define the capacity of the prison to run various aspects of its regime, based on staffing, the prison population profile and operational capacity. It allows for early and effective planning of the regime, taking into account the likely or actual staffing level.

Where absence, recruitment issues or other problems cause staffing to drop below locally defined ranges, the plan allows the prison’s management to make quick, guided decisions, based on an assessment of the risk associated with running particular aspects of the regime, as to how the regime should be adapted to continue to allow safe operation.