Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison staff were dismissed for conducting inappropriate relationships with prisoners in each year since 2010.

HM Prison and Probation Service has conduct and discipline policies in place which set out the minimum standards of conduct expected of all civil servants. Staff must exercise particular care to ensure that their dealings with prisoners, former prisoners and their friends and relations are not open to abuse, misrepresentation or exploitation. Staff relationships with prisoners must be professional at all times, and the HMPPS Counter Corruption Unit proactively follows up on intelligence to detect and investigate potentially inappropriate relationships.

The table below shows the number of prison staff dismissed after conduct and discipline action due to inappropriate relationships with a prisoner/ex-prisoner from the years 2009/10 to 2019/20. The figure for 2020/21 will be available in November following publication of the 2020/21 HMPPS Staff Equalities Report.

Table 1: Prison staff¹ dismissed² after conduct and discipline³ action for inappropriate relationship with a prisoner / ex-prisoner 4⁴, for years 2009/10 to 2019/20

Notes to tables:

1. Prison Staff relates to anyone working in HM Prison Service or the Youth Custody Service (YCS). Therefore it excludes anyone working in HQ or National Probation Service.

2. Information on the outcomes of any appeal is not included.

3. Conduct and discipline cases are defined as where a penalty has been imposed on a member of HMPPS staff for a reason of conduct

4. Staff subject to at least one conduct and discipline that was concluded during the year. If an individual had multiple charges then they will be counted only once.

5. Figures for 2020/21 will be published on 25 November 2021 in Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) Annual Staff Equalities Report.