Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison officers have been dismissed for (a) supplying and (b) transporting drugs in prison in each of the last ten years.

The vast majority of prison staff are hardworking and dedicated. A minority of staff engage in corrupt activity which is often as a result of conditioning and manipulation by prisoners.

HM Prison & Probation Service has a zero-tolerance policy to drugs conveyed into prisons and take appropriate action in respect of the small number of prison staff who break the rules. Our £100m Security Investment Programme (SIP), aimed at reducing crime in prisons, including reducing the conveyance of illicit items such as drugs and mobile phones, is ongoing. This includes increased resource to pursue corruption, as well as established a new ‘Prevent’ function, aimed at building staff resilience against corruption.

Our £100 million Security Investment Programme aimed to improve security with a focus on technology, such as X-ray body scanners. This aimed to improve our ability to detect and disrupt drugs from entering prisons, supported by enhancements to intelligence and counter corruption capabilities.

Over the last few years, we have continued to increase in capacity and deliver our counter-corruption strategy. Through the £100m SIP investment over 100 new staff were also recruited into the Counter-Corruption Unit. This includes regional Prevent teams dedicated to building staff resilience through training, awareness raising and individual support.

Given the investment and measures outlined above, the increase in instances outlined below may reflect better detecting and reporting of drugs conveyance, as opposed to an increase in activity.

Source: Linkspace Case Management System.

Notes:

Linkspace is the Counter Corruption Unit’s (CCU) Case Management System used to record and track cases linked to corruption.

Data provided by the Counter Corruption (CCU) have the following Caveats applied below;

1) Prior to April 2019, corruption in HMPPS was managed by the Corruption Prevention Unit (CPU). The CPU was a largely centralised unit focused on sanitising and disseminating all corruption related intelligence to the Police, with an individual Regional Corruption

Prevention Manager (RCPM) in each geographical region offering advice and support to prisons in managing corruption, hence data prior to April 2019 is not available.

2) ‘Supplying and transporting’ of drugs in a prison falls under the definition of ‘conveyance of drugs’ and recorded on the CCU’s Case Management System to cases linked to drugs related offences.

3) Data includes Prison Custodial Officer (PCO) and they are the equivalent to a Prison Officer in a privately run establishment.