Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of staff in (a) prisons and (b) young offender institutions in West Yorkshire are employed by private contractors.

I can confirm that as of 16 March 2021 in prisons and young offender institutions within the West Yorkshire region (HMPs Leeds, New Hall, Wealstun, Wetherby and Wakefield), there was a total of c.2,100 directly employed staff, and approximately 700 non-directly employed employees.

Staff employed by private contractors mainly provide services in healthcare, education and facilities management. This information has been taken from individual local prison records and has not been verified centrally.

HM Prison and Probation Workforce statistics are published quarterly, and the latest publication can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/her-majestys-prison-and-probation-service-workforce-quarterly-december-2020. These only provide data for directly employed staff.