Wandsworth Prison: Prison Officers
(asked on 29th February 2024) - View Source
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison officers were in (a) training or (b) probation at HMP Wandsworth on the first Monday of each month in each of the last 12 months.
The requested information is shown in the tables below.
Number of Prison Officers in initial training at HMP Wandsworth, Mar 2023 – Feb 2024:
Date | 6 Mar | 3 Apr | 1 May | 5 Jun | 3 Jul | 7 Aug | 4 Sep | 2 Oct | 6 Nov | 4 Dec | 1 Jan | 5 Feb |
Number of Prison Officers in initial training | 16 | 17 | 18 | 18 | 25 | 31 | 34 | 18 | 24 | 48 | 48 | 74 |
Number of Prison Officers on probation at HMP Wandsworth, Mar 2023 – Feb 2024:
Date | 6 Mar | 3 Apr | 1 May | 5 Jun | 3 Jul | 7 Aug | 4 Sep | 2 Oct | 6 Nov | 4 Dec | 1 Jan | 5 Feb |
Number of Prison Officers on probation | 49 | 52 | 53 | 51 | 48 | 44 | 42 | 58 | 62 | 54 | 61 | 66 |
The officers in the above table are those on probation during their first 12 months in post. Ensuring prisons are sufficiently resourced and that we retain levels of experience are fundamental to delivering quality outcomes in prisons. That is why we are targeting the drivers of staff resignations and taking steps to improve recruitment levels through innovative approaches such as support under the national HMPPS Brand campaign and our use of incentives scheme to target prisons where there is the greatest need, which HMP Wandsworth benefit from.
Despite a challenging labour market, the Ministry of Justice has seen an improving national staffing picture within prisons. The number of frontline (Band 3-5) prison officers increased by 1,634 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) (7.6 per cent) in the year to December 2023, to 23,266 FTE. Over the same period, there was a fall in the resignation rate among Band 3-5 officers of 2.4 percentage points. At HMP Wandsworth, there has been an increase of 21 FTE Band 3-5 prison officers in the most recent quarterly statistics (September 2023 - December 2023).