Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment her Department has made of the implications for (a) prison officer and (b) prisoner safety of prison officers working in shifts at other prison establishments in addition to those prison establishments at which they are based.

There is a requirement that home/parent establishments maintain records of all official duties carried out by members of staff, both those duties within their home/parent establishment and within or for any other establishment. Establishments are also required to maintain records when members of staff from other establishments carryout duties within or for their establishment.

Individual members of staff have a responsibility to support the above and are required inform their parent establishment of their wish/intention to work additional hours at another establishment, in advance of the hours being worked.

When members of staff are deployed to another establishment for a protracted period on Detached Duty they are given an appropriate induction to familiarise them with specifics of the prison and key issues relating to individual prisoners. If standard duties are carried out on an ad hoc basis for other establishments standard risk assessments and briefs will be carried out.

In all circumstances records should be maintained.