Prison Service: Staff

(asked on 9th January 2024) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of staff safety at prisons operated by HM Prison Service.


Answered by
Edward Argar Portrait
Edward Argar
Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
This question was answered on 15th January 2024

Prison Officers are some of our finest public servants, and we do not underestimate the challenges faced by everyone working in prisons. We will not tolerate any violence against prison officers – staff must be able to expect a safe and decent work environment.

We are committed to making prisons a safe place to work and providing prison officers with the right support, training and tools to empower them to do their jobs.   To protect staff and prisoners in very serious assaults, we have rolled out PAVA – a synthetic pepper spray – for use by prison officers in the adult male estate. Staff are able to use the PAVA spray where there is serious violence or an imminent or perceived risk of it.

We have rolled out a new Body Worn Video Camera system which has increased the overall number of cameras across public sector prisons to over 13,000. This enables every operational band 3-5 officer on shift to wear a camera. The cameras will provide high-quality evidence to support prosecutions against prisoners who commit assaults.

We continue to take action to strengthen the frontline. Between the end of December 2022 to the end of September 2023, the number of prison officers has increased from 21,632, to 23,058 FTE an extra 1,426 additional Full Time Equivalent (FTE) band 3-5 prison officers.

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