Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) prison officers and (b) other staff members at (i) HMP Berwyn and (ii) other prisons in Wales are Welsh speaking.

HMPPS do not gather official statistics about the number of Welsh speaking staff in prisons. The below local information was collected by Equalities Leads in Wales in Jan 2021, however, this is subject to staff declaring themselves to be Welsh speakers. There is also varying levels of fluency among staff.

At HMP Parc, 32 operational staff and 26 non-operational staff are Welsh speakers.

We are working hard to increase the diversity of prison staff and making the recruitment process more accessible to new starters from a range of backgrounds, and we continue to welcome applications from Welsh speakers and in the Welsh language.