Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many band 3 to 5 prison officers have received training to deal with terrorist or extremist prisoners.

1. Counter terrorism training is available to all prison staff either remotely, when it is more convenient for establishments, or face-to-face. Training is now also more flexible, with sessions available in evenings and at weekends.

We started recording grade specific data in April 2021. Since then, a total of 6,893 band 3-5 prison officers have received Counter Terrorism training. This includes:

• 3,483 existing Band 3-5 Prison Officers; and
• All 3,410 new Band 3 Prison Officers who have received CT training as part of their Prison Officer Entry Level Training induction course

Whilst grade specific data has only been recorded since April 2021, all new officers Bands 3-5 have received ASPECTS (CT training) as part of their initial training, since 2017.

2.

a) The content of the counter terrorism training course is not published. There are no plans for publication due to the sensitive nature of the course and the risk it would pose to maintaining good order in prisons and national security.

b) The training course is one module and involves half a day of face-to-face delivery.

3. The current Counter Terrorism training package is ASPECTS (Awareness for Staff on Prevent Extremism and the Counter Terrorism Strategy) and was developed by prison counter terrorism experts, counter-terrorism police and training specialists. It aims to provide staff working in prisons with an improved understanding of Counter Terrorism, radicalisation, and extremist ideologies which can be applied to their daily work with prisoners and improve staff confidence in challenging behaviours that are contrary to our fundamental values.

The training package has undergone regular reviews to ensure it is up to date and responsive to feedback from trainers and attendees, which has been largely positive. In 2021, an external company also conducted a review and these findings, as well as data and responses from user surveys, will play a key role in the redevelopment of our training package, which is currently underway. Critical success factors for the redeveloped course are being established to ensure robust ongoing evaluation.