Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on restarting negotiations with the Prison Officers Association over the pension age of prison officers.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The pension age in all public sector pension schemes is set under legislation by HM Treasury, and the merits of any review in pension age would be for them to consider. The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice is committed to listening and working with officers, staff and trade unions, and Ministers will continue to meet with the Prison Officer’s Association and other unions to discuss a range of issues. We highly value our hardworking prison officers and take very seriously the safety of all staff working within prisons, whatever their age.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 13 September 2023 to Question 197911 on Prison Officers: Pensions, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of reducing the pension age of prison officers to 60.
Answered by John Glen
The Government values hardworking prison officers and has recently accepted the recommendations of the Prison Service Pay Review Body (PSPRB) for 2023/24 in full. Normal Pension Age in the civil service alpha scheme is set at a member’s State Pension age, and the Government notes the concerns raised in this regard by workforce representatives.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of reducing the pension age of prison officers to 60.
Answered by Damian Hinds
The pension age in all public sector pension schemes is set under legislation by HM Treasury and the merits of any review in aspects of the pension scheme, including pension age, would be for them to consider. I am committed to listening to and working with officers, staff and trade unions and I continue to meet with the Prison Officer’s Association and other unions to discuss a range of issues, including pensions. We highly value our hardworking prison officers and take very seriously the safety of all staff working within prisons, whatever their age. The Ministry of Justice continues to review and roll out new safety equipment and provide new skills to prison officers to deal with challenging situations and reduce the risk of assault.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 18 May 2023 to Question 184944, Prison Service: Dismissal, what proportion of prison staff aged 60 or over were dismissed from service because of medical inefficiency in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Damian Hinds
Information on the proportion of staff, aged 60 and over in HM Prisons (including YCS) who left for reasons of ‘Dismissal - Unsatisfactory attendance’ or ‘Dismissal - Medical Inefficiency’ is given in the table below. Between January 2017 and December 2019, cases of ‘Dismissal - Medical Inefficiency’ were recorded as ‘Dismissal - Unsatisfactory attendance’ on our internal reporting system, and so these have been combined in the response throughout the time series.
Table 1: Proportion of prison staff aged 60+1 who were dismissed due to medical inefficiency/unsatisfactory attendance2, from 01 April to 31 March; 2013/14 to 2022/23 |
(headcount)
Financial Year | Proportion of prison staff aged 60+ dismissed due to medical inefficiency/unsatisfactory attendance |
2013/14 | 1.7% |
2014/15 | 2.1% |
2015/16 | 1.8% |
2016/17 | 2.1% |
2017/18 | 1.0% |
2018/19 | 1.3% |
2019/20 | 1.8% |
2020/21 | 1.2% |
2021/22 | 1.5% |
2022/23 | 2.3% |
Notes
1. Age as at time of leaving
2. From January 2017 to December 2019, information regarding dismissals as a result of medical inefficiencies were recorded as unsatisfactory attendances. Therefore, these categories have been combined here throughout the timeseries.
Prison officers are part of the Civil Service Pension Scheme which has a pension age linked to the individuals state pensions age – this is between 65 and 68 depending on their date of birth. This is the same for HMPPS in England and Wales as it is for the Scottish Prison Service.
This is a defined benefit scheme which pays a pension for life without investment uncertainties. It has one of the lower employee contribution rates across the public sector, whilst employer contributions are 27%
Whilst the fire and police service pensions have a lower retirement age of 60, members of these schemes pay between 12% and 14% contributions, whereas prison officers pay only 5.45%
HMPPS takes very seriously the health and safety of all prison staff – whatever their age. All prison officers who joined the service after April 2001 must pass an annual fitness test in order to remain a prison officer.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 18 May 2023 to Question 184942, Prison Service: Early Retirement, what proportion of prison staff aged 60 or over retired due to (a) ill health and (b) injury in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Damian Hinds
Information on the proportion of prison staff aged 60 and over who left HMPPS due to ‘ill health retirement’ is given in the following table. Figures are presented annually for the last ten years.
There is not a specific, centrally held, leaving reason for ‘injury’ and so this part cannot be answered.
The data provided relates to headcount and not FTE.
Table 1: Proportion of prison staff aged 60+1 who retired due to ill health2, from 01 April to 31 March; 2013/14 to 2022/23
Financial Year | Proportion of prison staff aged 60+ who retired due to ill health | Proportion of retiring prison staff 60+ who retired due to ill health |
2013/14 | 0.10% | 0.57% |
2014/15 | 0.00% | 0.00% |
2015/16 | 0.00% | 0.00% |
2016/17 | ~ | ~ |
2017/18 | 0.20% | 1.28% |
2018/19 | 0.20% | 1.65% |
2019/20 | 0.30% | 2.54% |
2020/21 | 0.20% | 1.98% |
2021/22 | ~ | ~ |
2022/23 | 0.40% | 3.34% |
Notes
1. Age as at time of leaving.
2. Includes the following reasons for leaving: 'Retirement: Medical', 'Retirement: Ill Health Retirement', 'Retirement: Ill Health Tier 1', 'Retirement: Ill Health Tier 2', 'Retirement: Ill Health Tier 3'.
~ denotes suppressed values of 2 or fewer or other values which would allow values of 2 or fewer to be derived by subtraction. Low numbers are suppressed to prevent disclosure in accordance with the Data Protection Act, 2018.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the potential (a) impact of the prison officer retirement age on safety in prisons and (b) merits of aligning the retirement age of prison officers with police officers.
Answered by Damian Hinds
We highly value our hardworking prison officers and take very seriously the safety of all staff working within prisons, whatever their age. The Ministry continues to review and roll out new safety equipment and provide new skills to prison officers to deal with challenging situations and reduce the risk of assault.
The pension age in all public sector pension schemes is set under legislation by HM Treasury and the merits of any review in pension age would be for them to consider. I am committed to listening to and working with officers, staff and trade unions on a range of issues.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of retirements due to (a) ill health and (b) injury were taken by prison staff aged 60 or over in each of the last 12 quarters.
Answered by Damian Hinds
Information on the number of prison staff, aged 60 plus who left HMPPS due to ‘ill health retirement’ and the proportion they make up of all ‘ill health’ retirements is given in the following table. Figures are presented quarterly, from April 2020 to March 2023.
We work hard to keep all prison staff safe. The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act has increased the maximum penalty to up to two years imprisonment for assaulting prison officers. A new Crime in Prisons Taskforce will improve evidence collection for serious assaults and will secure more effective prosecutions.
We also continue to roll out PAVA – a synthetic pepper spray – in the adult male estate to protect staff and prisoners from incidents of serious violence alongside SPEAR, a Personal Safety training package used to resolve and de-escalate incidents. More than 13,000 new body cameras have been rolled out to public sector prisons, ensuring every operational band 3-5 officer can wear one and capture high-quality evidence to support prosecutions against prisoners who commit assaults.
There is not a specific, centrally held, leaving reason for ‘injury’.
Table 1 Headcount of prison staff retirements due to ill health - aged 60 and over(1) - quarterly from April 2020 to March 2023
Financial Year | Quarter | 60+ | Percentage 60+ of all ill health retirements |
2020/2021 | Apr-Jun | ~ | ~ |
| Jul-Sept | 0 | 0% |
| Oct-Dec | 4 | 20% |
| Jan-Mar | ~ | ~ |
2021/2022 | Apr-Jun | 0 | 0% |
| Jul-Sept | 0 | 0% |
| Oct-Dec | ~ | ~ |
| Jan-Mar | 0 | 0% |
2022/2023 | Apr-Jun | ~ | ~ |
| Jul-Sept | 5 | 25% |
| Oct-Dec | 4 | 17% |
| Jan-Mar | 4 | 20% |
Notes:
Age as at time of leaving
~ denotes suppressed values of 2 or fewer or other values which would allow values of 2 or fewer to be derived by subtraction. Low numbers are suppressed to prevent disclosure in accordance with the Data Protection Act, 2018.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has had recent discussions with (a) the Chancellor of the Exchequer and (b) the Minister for the Cabinet Office on the potential merits of lowering the pension age of prison officers to 60.
Answered by Damian Hinds
We highly value our hardworking prison staff and offer access to medical professionals and an employee assistance programme to ensure continued physical and mental wellbeing. I am committed to listening to and working with officers, staff and trade unions on a range of issues, and I continue to meet with the Prison Officer’s Association and other unions to discuss a range of issues. At this time no discussions have taken place with honourable colleagues from Treasury or Cabinet Office on prison officer pension age.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 8 December 2022 to Question 902659 on Prison officers: retirement, and to the Answer of 19 December 2022 to Question 110664 on Cabinet Office: Transfer of Questions, which Department leads on Government policy relating to prison officer pension age.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
HM Treasury leads on all public sector pension scheme policy making and sets clear parameters within which pension scheme rules must be set, including the pension age for public servants.
The Cabinet Office is responsible for making the Civil Service pension scheme regulations. This pension scheme covers the overwhelming majority of civil servants in active service, including prison officers, and must be delivered within the wider HM Treasury policies.
Finally, the Ministry of Justice leads on local policy relating to prison officer terms and conditions. It may consider utilising employment, retirement and pension flexibilities for particular groups, if affordable and as they deem appropriate.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the answer of 8 December 2022 to Question 902659 on Prison officers: retirement, for what reasons this question was transferred from the Cabinet Office to the Ministry of Justice.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
The Terms and Conditions of Prison Officers, including any proposals to change their retirement provisions, are matters on which the Ministry of Justice lead.