Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the number of staff shortages by prison in the wider prison estate resulting from resources being deployed as part of the 10 Prisons Programme.

There will be no permanent staff shortages in the wider prison estate resulting from resources being deployed as part of the 10 Prisons Project. New posts in the ten prisons are funded from additional resources.

When we need temporary deployment of experienced or specialist staff, we have in place a well-established Detached Duty scheme which ensures the prisons sending staff have the necessary resources to do so safely. The 10 Prisons Project is testing new approaches and any staff deployed to support that work will take new skills back to their home establishment.