Prisons: Pepper Spray
(asked on 8th November 2021) - View Source
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government on how many occasions pelargonic acid vanillylamide (PAVA) incapacitant spray has been (1) drawn, or (2) drawn and deployed, in prisons since 1 April 2019, broken down by (a) ethnicity, (b) religion, and (c) disability status, of the 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.
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.
There haves been a total of 279 incidents involving PAVA since 1st April 2019, of those incidentsin 187 incidents PAVA was drawn and deployed and in 92 PAVA were as drawn only.
We are unable to provide this for disability as data for this is not available.
Ethnicity | Individuals Impacted | % | Drawn and Deployed | % | Drawn only | % |
Asian/Asian British | 33 | 6% | 28 | 7% | 5 | 3% |
Black/Black British | 182 | 35% | 147 | 39% | 35 | 24% |
Mixed | 57 | 11% | 38 | 10% | 19 | 13% |
Other ethnic group | 8 | 2% | 7 | 2% | 1 | 1% |
White | 241 | 46% | 159 | 42% | 82 | 57% |
Not recorded | 4 | 1% | 2 | 1% | 2 | 1% |
Total | 525 | 100% | 381 | 100% | 144 | 100% |
Religion | Individuals Impacted | % | Drawn and Deployed | % | Drawn only | % |
Buddhist | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% |
Christian | 198 | 38% | 131 | 34% | 67 | 46% |
Hindu | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% |
Jewish | 3 | 1% | 2 | 1% | 1 | 1% |
Muslim | 133 | 25% | 103 | 27% | 30 | 21% |
Sikh | 2 | 0% | 1 | 0% | 1 | 1% |
Other | 12 | 2% | 10 | 3% | 2 | 1% |
No religion | 151 | 29% | 112 | 29% | 39 | 27% |
Not recorded | 26 | 5% | 22 | 6% | 4 | 3% |
Total | 525 | 100% | 381 | 100% | 144 | 100% |