Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of changing the eligibility criteria for prison officer long service medals to enable officers employed in privately managed prisons to receive them; and if he will make a statement.

The Prison Service’s (operational duties) Long Service and Good Conduct Medal is awarded to operational staff in UK Prison Services on completion of 20 years continuous service. The medals are awarded by HM The Queen and aligns operational public sector prison staff with other comparable other front line public services such as the police, fire and ambulance services, and the Armed Forces.

HMPPS has previously approached the Cabinet Office in relation to making this medal available to staff in private sector prisons. The Cabinet Office confirmed that there are a series of protocols concerning the issue of medals of this type, one of which is that they can only be awarded to staff working in public sector prisons (civil servants) and not those prisons run by private sector companies.