Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison officers in each prison are deployed with rigid handcuffs.

We are rolling out rigid-bar handcuffs to prison officers as part of our continued focus on improving safety and reducing violence.

Before a prison can deploy rigid bar handcuffs, all uniformed staff must be trained in their use. At the moment, only HMP Stoke Heath has completed its training, and 153 staff have been issued with rigid-bar handcuffs. At HMP Brinsford 43 staff have completed their training, with a further 13 to be trained by the end of this week. Other prisons are also at various stages of delivering their training.

In addition to these deployments, rigid-bar handcuffs are also carried by staff of the National Tactical Response Group and by Regional Search and Dog teams, as part of the operational response to incidents.