Prisons: Pepper Spray
(asked on 21st November 2022) - View Source
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government on how many occasions PAVA spray incapacitant has been (1) drawn, and (2) drawn and deployed, in prisons since 1 April 2019, broken down by (a) ethnicity, and (b) religion, of each prisoner.
We ensure all our prison officers are trained in how to use PAVA professionally, safely and lawfully and that it is only used when necessary and proportionate.
There has been a total of 470 incidents involving PAVA since 1 April 2019. Of those, PAVA was drawn and deployed in 320 incidents and 150 were drawn only. See below for a breakdown by ethnicity and religion.
The data provided for this response is collected as internal management information and reflects the data held at the date of extraction. It is not quality assured in the same way as data prepared for publication and is subject to change.
| From Apr 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | To 22/11/2022 | Total |
Total Number of Incidents: | 55 | 104 | 148 | 163 | 470 |
Total Number of Drawn and Deployed Incidents | 42 | 62 | 103 | 113 | 320 |
Total Number of Drawn only Incidents | 13 | 42 | 45 | 50 | 150 |
Ethnicity:
Ethnicity | Individuals Impacted | Drawn and Deployed | Drawn only |
Asian/Asian British | 64 | 54 | 10 |
Black/Black British | 396 | 316 | 80 |
Mixed | 118 | 85 | 33 |
Other ethnic group | 24 | 19 | 5 |
White | 375 | 255 | 120 |
Not recorded | 8 | 3 | 5 |
Total | 985 | 732 | 253 |
Religion:
* denotes figures less than 5 which have been suppressed to avoid disclosure of information about individuals
Religion | Individuals Impacted | Drawn and Deployed | Drawn only |
Buddhist | * | * | * |
Christian | 431 | 318 | 113 |
Hindu | * | * | * |
Jewish | * | * | * |
Muslim | 279 | 217 | 62 |
Sikh | * | * | * |
Other | 20 | 15 | 5 |
No religion | 236 | 171 | 65 |
Not recorded | 8 | 4 | 4 |
Total | 985 | 732 | 253 |
PAVA is used in incidents such as prisoner on prisoner violence, therefore the number of incidents differs from the number of individuals impacted. Data for 2022 is to date (as of 22/11/22).