Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many full-time equivalent prison officers there were in England and Wales; and what the ratio of prison officers to prisoners was in prisons in each year since 2010.

Information on the number of prison officers employed and on the prison population are available on gov.uk. The published workforce information covers public sector prisons only and so is not directly comparable to the headline population information.

Safe prisons are fundamental to the proper functioning of our justice system. Our dedicated prison officers, who support tens of thousands of prisoners every day, are vital to the safe running of our prisons. We have recruited 2,900 staff over the last 12 months and are taking significant action to make sure we have appropriate staffing levels.