Prison Officers: Resignations

(asked on 12th June 2018) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison officers in England and Wales left the Prison Service after less than (a) six months, (b) twelve months and (c) eighteen months from the start of their employment in each of the last eight years.


Answered by
 Portrait
Rory Stewart
This question was answered on 16th July 2018

The number of band 3-5 prison officers who left the Prison Service, by the length of service at leaving is shown in table 1 below.

Table 1: Band 3-5 officers1 (headcount) who left the Prison Service, by length of service2, 2010/11 to 2017/18

Length of service2

Financial year

Less than 6 months

6 months and up to but excluding 12 months

12 months and up to but excluding 18 months

18 months and over

Total band 3-5 officer leavers

2010/11

41

29

26

1,052

1,148

2011/12

11

31

22

1,091

1,155

2012/13

19

17

14

1,475

1,525

2013/14

2

10

11

2,919

2,942

2014/15

73

9

5

1,265

1,352

2015/16

161

160

33

1,182

1,536

2016/17

154

90

150

1,430

1,824

2017/18

437

202

95

1,339

2,073

For context it is important to note that:

  • Low levels of prison officer recruitment happened between 2010 to 2014, meaning there were relatively low numbers of officers in HMPPS with short lengths of service. (Details can be found in table 14 of the latest published workforce statistics: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/her-majestys-prison-and-probation-service-workforce-quarterly-march-2018)
  • The increase in 2017/18 in the number of officers leaving in the first year is likely to be due to the recent recruitment campaign (begun in November 2016) to increase officer numbers by 2,500 - the larger volumes of newer officers would mean that the higher leaving volumes of individuals leaving in their first year would not be unexpected.
  • The high number of leavers with more the 18 months of service in 2013/14 is due to voluntary early departure schemes run in that financial year.

1 Includes Bands 3-4 / Prison Officer (incl specialists), Band 4 / Supervising Officer and Band 5 / Custodial Managers.

2 Length of service in HMPPS calculated from most recent hire date. Where staff have transferred in from another Government Department or have transferred in through HMPPS taking over a function, length of service is calculated from entry to HMPPS.

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