Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of risk assessments at HMP Wandsworth.
Answered by Edward Argar - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
A review of security risk assessment processes commenced following the alleged escape from HMP Wandsworth on 06 September 2023. This work continues to be led by the Governor, supported by colleagues from the Directorate of Security. This will include a longer-term review of the Local Security Strategy to ensure that guidance is up to date and fit for purpose.
The Prison Group Director has increased the frequency of his visits to HMP Wandsworth to maintain senior manager oversight, and to review progress against current security action plans that have been produced following investigations into the escape.
Immediate action was taken after the alleged escape from HMP Wandsworth to review the processes for workplace risk assessments for prisoners at HMP Wandsworth. A workplace allocation action plan was produced and remains in place, to ensure senior manager oversight and monitoring of processes to allocate prisoners to work activities at Wandsworth.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many meetings he has had with the Governor of HMP Wandsworth since September 2021.
Answered by Edward Argar - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Justice, has met with the Governor of HMP Wandsworth on two occasions since September 2021. Separately, the Minister of State for Justice also met with the Governor of HMP Wandsworth on two occasions since September 2021.
Ministers and senior officials continue to engage closely with leaders responsible for HMP Wandsworth in a variety of ways beyond in-person meetings and site visits.
The Prison Group Director for London frequently visits HMP Wandsworth. He reports back to the Area Executive Director, who is in close contact with the Director General of Operations and the Chief Executive of HMPPS, and with Ministers via the Ministerial performance meeting.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he has taken to monitor the effects of conditions in HMP Wandsworth on the health and well-being of prisoners and staff.
Answered by Edward Argar - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Prison Group Director for London is taking active measures to support the health and well-being of staff and prisoners at HMP Wandsworth. He conducts regular visits to assess and monitor conditions at the prison. Accompanied by lead representatives for Health, Safety and Wellbeing at His Majesty’s Prison & Probation Service, he meets regularly with the Governor to discuss any actions that need to be taken to address identified concerns.
In addition, monthly tripartite meetings are held between Regional Estates, Finance and Health and Safety representatives, where decency is a standing agenda item. A Senior Safety Lead has recently been appointed to support local initiatives and work to improve safety outcomes for prisoners. A Task and Finish Group has recently been set up to address concerns about the physical environment of the in-patient unit at HMP Wandsworth, to improve infection prevention and control.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of prisoners at HMP Wandsworth have been recalled to custody having been released as part of the early release scheme.
Answered by Edward Argar - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Data on End of Custody Supervised Licence will be published when sufficient robust and comprehensive data is available. To support orderly release, its publication will be announced through the gov.uk release calendar.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans he has to reduce over-crowding in HMP Wandsworth.
Answered by Edward Argar - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
In prisons where we have crowding in place, a rigorous cell certification process is undertaken that ensures the use of cells is subject to a formal assessment of safety and decency.
We continue to pursue the package of longer-term measures the Lord Chancellor announced on 16 October 2023 to reform the justice system and address the prison capacity challenges. The measures include: the extension of the Early Removal Scheme to deport Foreign National Offenders (FNOs), introducing a presumption to suspend sentences of 12 months or less, curtailing the licence period for IPP sentences and extending the use of Home Detention Curfew. On 11 March, the Lord Chancellor announced the next steps in our plan, to allow us to go further and faster in removing FNOs. This includes expediting prisoner transfers with our priority partners, such as Albania, and the creation of a new taskforce across the Home Office and Ministry of Justice to change the way we process FNO cases radically.
To meet pressing demand, we are building c.20,000 modern, rehabilitative prison places – the biggest prison build programme since the Victorian era. We have already delivered c.5,900 of these, including through our two new 1,700 places prisons, HMP Five Wells and HMP Fosse Way, and c.590 Rapid Deployment Cells across 11 sites. By the end of 2025, we are on track to have delivered around 10,000 places in total.
The Government will continue to monitor the evolving situation with demand for prison places carefully, so that we can make sure we have the right approaches in place to maintain the capacity required for a safe and effective criminal justice system.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has made a recent assessment of the potential impact of conditions in Wandsworth prison on the health of (a) prisoners and (b) staff.
Answered by Edward Argar - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Prison Group Director for London is taking active measures to support the health and well-being of staff and prisoners at HMP Wandsworth. He conducts regular visits to assess and monitor conditions at the prison. Accompanied by lead representatives for Health, Safety and Wellbeing at His Majesty’s Prison & Probation Service, he meets regularly with the Governor to discuss any actions that need to be taken to address identified concerns.
In addition, monthly tripartite meetings are held between Regional Estates, Finance and Health and Safety representatives, where decency is a standing agenda item. A Senior Safety Lead has recently been appointed to support local initiatives and work to improve safety outcomes for prisoners. A Task and Finish Group has recently been set up to address concerns about the physical environment of the in-patient unit at HMP Wandsworth, to improve infection prevention and control.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what was the cost of the provision of healthcare at HMP Wandsworth in the last 12 months.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The total cost of the contract that NHS England has commissioned for healthcare services at HMP Wandsworth, provided by Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024, is £14,008,787.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison officers were in (a) training or (b) probation at HMP Wandsworth on the first Monday of each month in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Edward Argar - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The requested information is shown in the tables below.
Number of Prison Officers in initial training at HMP Wandsworth, Mar 2023 – Feb 2024:
Date | 6 Mar | 3 Apr | 1 May | 5 Jun | 3 Jul | 7 Aug | 4 Sep | 2 Oct | 6 Nov | 4 Dec | 1 Jan | 5 Feb |
Number of Prison Officers in initial training | 16 | 17 | 18 | 18 | 25 | 31 | 34 | 18 | 24 | 48 | 48 | 74 |
Number of Prison Officers on probation at HMP Wandsworth, Mar 2023 – Feb 2024:
Date | 6 Mar | 3 Apr | 1 May | 5 Jun | 3 Jul | 7 Aug | 4 Sep | 2 Oct | 6 Nov | 4 Dec | 1 Jan | 5 Feb |
Number of Prison Officers on probation | 49 | 52 | 53 | 51 | 48 | 44 | 42 | 58 | 62 | 54 | 61 | 66 |
The officers in the above table are those on probation during their first 12 months in post. Ensuring prisons are sufficiently resourced and that we retain levels of experience are fundamental to delivering quality outcomes in prisons. That is why we are targeting the drivers of staff resignations and taking steps to improve recruitment levels through innovative approaches such as support under the national HMPPS Brand campaign and our use of incentives scheme to target prisons where there is the greatest need, which HMP Wandsworth benefit from.
Despite a challenging labour market, the Ministry of Justice has seen an improving national staffing picture within prisons. The number of frontline (Band 3-5) prison officers increased by 1,634 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) (7.6 per cent) in the year to December 2023, to 23,266 FTE. Over the same period, there was a fall in the resignation rate among Band 3-5 officers of 2.4 percentage points. At HMP Wandsworth, there has been an increase of 21 FTE Band 3-5 prison officers in the most recent quarterly statistics (September 2023 - December 2023).
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many referrals for secondary healthcare treatment for prisoners at HMP Wandsworth were made in each year since 2010.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
NHS England has advised that it is unable to provide information prior to 1 September 2019, due to a new contract commencing with a new healthcare provider. The total number of prisoners at HMP Wandsworth referred to secondary healthcare treatment between 1 September 2019 and 11 March 2024, is 661. The number of these referrals which were missed is not held.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many referrals for secondary healthcare treatment for prisoners at HMP Wandsworth were missed in each year since 2010.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
NHS England has advised that it is unable to provide information prior to 1 September 2019, due to a new contract commencing with a new healthcare provider. The total number of prisoners at HMP Wandsworth referred to secondary healthcare treatment between 1 September 2019 and 11 March 2024, is 661. The number of these referrals which were missed is not held.