Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of the provisions of the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023 on the ability of the Prison Officers Association to represent their members in workplace disputes.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The provisions of the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023 (the 2023 Act) do not extend to prison officers, who are not included in the categories listed in section 234B(4) of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, as amended by the Schedule to the 2023 Act. Under section 127 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, however, it would be unlawful for a trade union representing prison officers to induce its members to strike.
As prison officers do not have a right to strike, the Prison Service Pay Review Body (PSPRB) is an independent body which acts as a compensatory mechanism. The PSPRB conducts its own research and considers evidence submitted by the Prison Officers Association before making recommendations to the Government. The Government would only depart from those recommendations in exceptional circumstances.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of prison officers are up-to-date on Control and Restraint training, as of 1 March 2024.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
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 on active duty at HMP Wandsworth, on the first Monday of each month for the last 12 months.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The table below shows the number of staff on active duty at HMP Wandsworth in the morning (AM), the afternoon (PM) and on evening duty (ED) of the first Monday of each month, from March 2023 until February 2024. An individual member of staff may have completed more than one period of duty during the day.
The data include all Band 3 staff attending who were scheduled to attend, including those undertaking external escort duty. They do not include any staff on training, restricted duties or undertaking bed watch duties. In addition to those for scheduled staff, separate details are provided of Band 3 officers who attended under Payment Plus arrangements.
6 March | 4 April | 1 May | 5 June | 3 July | |||||||||||
On active duty | AM | PM | ED | AM | PM | ED | AM | PM | ED | AM | PM | ED | AM | PM | ED |
Scheduled | 102 | 64 | 13 | 87 | 75 | 21 | 83 | 77 | 21 | 83 | 74 | 25 | 99 | 85 | 29 |
Payment Plus | 5 | 13 | 15 | 13 | 15 | 13 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 4 | 13 | 11 | 5 | 10 | 9 |
7 Aug | 4 Sept | 2 Oct | 6 Nov | 4 Dec | |||||||||||
On active duty | AM | PM | ED | AM | PM | ED | AM | PM | ED | AM | PM | ED | AM | PM | ED |
Scheduled | 75 | 73 | 24 | 81 | 86 | 30 | 91 | 87 | 31 | 88 | 83 | 31 | 93 | 92 | 29 |
Payment Plus | 4 | 11 | 15 | 13 | 12 | 9 | 5 | 9 | 11 | 9 | 7 | 9 | 4 | 13 | 9 |
1 Jan | 5 Feb | |||||
On active duty | AM | PM | ED | AM | PM | ED |
Scheduled | 73 | 70 | 22 | 90 | 81 | 22 |
Payment Plus | 0 | 4 | 7 | 6 | 9 | 8 |
Active recruitment has been in progress at HMP Wandsworth, in recognition of the Band 3 prison officer staffing position. A steady increase of new starters has enabled the prison to achieve its target staffing figure of 315 Band 3 prison officers. Some of these new staff are still at training college but will be able to commence full duties within the next six weeks.
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 28 February 2024 to Question 15436 on Prison Officers: Crimes of Violence, if he will publish the data on method of attack against (a) prison officers and (b) all staff, broken down by victim.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We publish statistics on the number of total assaults, broken down by type of weapon, as part of our Safety in Custody statistics.
Our statisticians regularly review the content of publications and welcome feedback. Development of new and improved statistical outputs is usually dependent on reallocating existing resources. As part of our continual review and prioritisation, we will consider publishing assaults with weapons by victim type.
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 28 February 2024 to Question 15436, whether assaults by razor are counted under (a) knife/blade or (b) other sharp instrument.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Assaults by razor should be counted in knife/blade, as the definition is “an object with a sharp edge that is designed to puncture, chop, slice or scrape surfaces, skin, material”. However, as there is no formal reference to razors, we expect that some may also be in the ‘other sharp instrument’ category, defined as “objects or instruments which are able to cut, prick, cause injury and / or infection e.g.,needle, broken glass” and the ‘other’ category.
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 on restricted duties at HMP Wandsworth on the first Monday of each month in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The requested information is shown in the table below.
Number of Prison Officers on restricted duties 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 restricted duties | 12 | 11 | 9 | 15 | 8 | 14 | 13 | 21 | 23 | 17 | 12 | 13 |
Restricted duties are where a member of staff is limited from their regular duties (this can be with regards to tasks or time), due to injury, illness or other reason, applied at the discretion of the line manager.
To ensure we support staff welfare, we have in place an Occupational Health and Employee Assistance Programme to improve wellbeing, as well as Care Teams, who are trained to provide support to any member of staff involved in an incident within the prison or when conducting official duties, present in all public sector prisons. Other services available include reflective sessions, access to online wellbeing services, 24-hour counselling, and a trauma-focused peer support system.
Alongside schemes to improve welfare, we continue to take steps to ensure that all prisons are sufficiently resourced through focusing efforts on recruitment, seeking to bolster our applicant pipelines through our use of incentives scheme to target prisons where there is the greatest need.
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.
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 - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
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 Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison officers were on long-term sick leave at HMP Wandsworth on the first Monday of each month in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The requested information is shown in the tables below.
Number of Prison Officers at HMP Wandsworth on short-term sick leave, 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 short-term sick leave | 17 | 10 | 6 | 5 | 8 | 12 | 11 | 8 | 12 | 7 | 14 | 14 |
Number of Prison Officers at HMP Wandsworth on long-term sick leave, 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 long-term sick leave | 14 | 13 | 14 | 8 | 7 | 14 | 11 | 11 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 8 |
Note:
Long-term sickness is defined as a period of sickness consisting of 29 or more calendar days.
HMP Wandsworth has robust weekly absence management processes in place to ensure that those who are absent because of sickness are being appropriately managed. This includes a review of all sickness absence (short and long-term), the reason for absences and ensuring appropriate support is being provided where required.
Those on continuing long-term sickness absence will be managed through a Formal Absence Review Meeting with the Governor, to explore whether they are fit to remain employed or if they can return to work in a different role.
HMPPS is focused on reducing its sickness absence rates through the support currently offered to staff and managers, including a comprehensive Employee Assistance Programme that provides the workforce with access to confidential support and counselling services. This is in addition to the organisation’s Occupational Health Service that supports staff and management with medical advice, and HMPPS’ multitude of staff networks that are part of HMPPS’ commitment to ensuring our staff feel supported in their roles.
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 off sick at HMP Wandsworth on the first Monday of each month in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The requested information is shown in the tables below.
Number of Prison Officers at HMP Wandsworth on short-term sick leave, 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 short-term sick leave | 17 | 10 | 6 | 5 | 8 | 12 | 11 | 8 | 12 | 7 | 14 | 14 |
Number of Prison Officers at HMP Wandsworth on long-term sick leave, 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 long-term sick leave | 14 | 13 | 14 | 8 | 7 | 14 | 11 | 11 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 8 |
Note:
Long-term sickness is defined as a period of sickness consisting of 29 or more calendar days.
HMP Wandsworth has robust weekly absence management processes in place to ensure that those who are absent because of sickness are being appropriately managed. This includes a review of all sickness absence (short and long-term), the reason for absences and ensuring appropriate support is being provided where required.
Those on continuing long-term sickness absence will be managed through a Formal Absence Review Meeting with the Governor, to explore whether they are fit to remain employed or if they can return to work in a different role.
HMPPS is focused on reducing its sickness absence rates through the support currently offered to staff and managers, including a comprehensive Employee Assistance Programme that provides the workforce with access to confidential support and counselling services. This is in addition to the organisation’s Occupational Health Service that supports staff and management with medical advice, and HMPPS’ multitude of staff networks that are part of HMPPS’ commitment to ensuring our staff feel supported in their roles.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison officers who volunteer as part of operation tornado there are are in each prison as of 27 February 2024.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Operation Tornado is a national mutual aid plan by which prisons support one another in the event of a serious incident or occurrence requiring a reinforcement of staff. Operation Tornado is employed by HMPPS for three main reasons:
The information requested can be found in the table attached. This information is collected every two weeks, and is dated from 22/02/2024.
A large number of specialist team callouts are for non-violent or confrontational issues and this data includes instances where a request for assistance was later deemed unnecessary.