Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, which prisons offer bonuses for detached duty volunteers; and how many officers have been paid bonuses in each prison in the last 12 months.

The following prisons currently attract a bonus for National Detached Duty volunteers;

HMP Bedford, HMP Bullingdon, HMP Bristol, HMP Cookham Wood, HMP Long Lartin, HMP Lowdham Grange, HMP Onley, HMP Stocken, HMP Swaleside, HMP Wayland, HMP Whitemoor, HMP Woodhill.

In the 12 months to 27 February 2024, 1146 bonus payments were made to prison officers at Bands 3-5 for national detached duty. Some staff have completed more than one detached duty deployment and separate bonuses are paid for each deployment. Detached duty deployments range from two to twelve weeks.

It is not possible, without incurring disproportionate cost, to collate the information needed to calculate how many individuals in each prison received bonus payments during the period.

We have committed to recruiting up to 5,000 additional prison officers across public and private prisons by the mid-2020s.

There has been a fall in the resignation rate among Band 3-5 officers of 2.4 percentage points in the year to 30 December 2023 compared to the previous year.