Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison officer vacancies there were in England on 31 December 2023.

We are doing more than ever to attract and retain the best staff, including boosting salaries and launching our first-ever nationwide advertising campaign. These efforts are working - we have over 4,800 FTE additional officers between March 2017 and December 2023 and retention rates for prison staff are improving.

In December 2023, across the whole of the Public Sector Prison estate in England for Band 3-5 Prison Officers, Staff in Post was 40 FTE below the Target Staffing level.

This figure is a combination of indicative vacancies at prisons with Staff in Post below their Target Staffing level and the indicative number of surplus staff at other prisons where Staff in Post is above their Target Staffing level. Prisons with surplus staff are likely to be sending those staff to work on Detached Duty at prisons with vacancies, and therefore netting vacancies against surpluses is a reasonable reflection of the overall national position.

At times, we have intentionally over-recruited in certain prisons or regions to give the system wider resilience and where prisons are not at their Target Staffing level. Use of Detached Duty, a long-standing mechanism to deploy staff from one prison or region to support another, is also not reflected in the indicative vacancies number.

Notes

1. All data is taken from Workforce Planning Tool returns and shows the average position across the month, adjusted for joiners and leavers in the month.
2. Data only covers Public Sector Prison establishments in England and will not reflect any Band 3 – 5 Prison Officers who are working in headquarters establishments (e.g. area offices), Public Sector Prisons in Wales or Privately Managed Prisons.
3. Workforce Planning Tool returns are manually completed by staff in prisons each month and, as with any manual returns, are subject to human error.
4. Indicative vacancies are the difference between Target Staffing levels and Staff in Post across the entire Public Sector Prison estate in England at prisons with Staff in Post below their Target Staffing level. Indicative surpluses are the difference between Target Staffing levels and Staff in Post across the entire Public Sector Prison estate in England at prisons where Staff in Post is above their Target Staffing level.
5. Target Staffing level is the number of staff required to run an optimal regime in each prison. This level is greater than the minimum number of staff required for a prison to operate safely, and includes allowances for staff taking leave, being off sick or being on training.
6. The Target Staffing Figures are set on a site-specific basis and vary in size.
7. Band 3-5 Officers includes Band 3-4 / Prison Officers (including specialists), Band 4 / Supervising Officers, and Band 5 / Custodial Managers.
8. Target Staffing levels are established based on a 39-hour working week. Staff in Post (FTE) is set at 1.0 FTE for those on a 39-hour contract / 1.05 FTE for those on a 41-hour contract and 0.95 FTE for those on a 37-hour contract.
9. Target Staffing levels cannot be used to directly calculate vacancies due to the discretion governors have to change establishment level staffing requirements through Governors' Freedoms. As a result, the MoJ does not currently regularly present vacancy data and the data presented should be treated as indicative.
10. Staff in Post data used to calculate an indicative number of vacancies does not take into account those on long-term absences (e.g. career breaks) / loans / secondments / agency staff or other forms of overtime.