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<p>Prison officers do a challenging and vital job to help protect the public and we
are committed to making sure we have enough staff to deliver safe regimes in our prisons.</p><p>
</p><p>Detached duty is one of the sensible and proportionate measures we take to
cover resourcing pressures and ensure we run safe and decent regimes in prisons as
well as being able to respond appropriately to any operational issues that arise.</p><p>
</p><p>In 2016 the former Secretary of State announced HMPPS would be recruiting an
additional 2,500 prison officers by December 2018. Good progress is being made to
hit this target, with 1,970 additional officers recruited by 31<sup>st</sup> December
2017. These new staff will reduce the need for Detached Duty.</p><p> </p><p>When there
is a need to accommodate staff in hotels, we work hard to ensure the best possible
value for money for the taxpayer and have controls in place to help keep costs to
a minimum.</p><p> </p><p>Where possible, bookings are for specifically timed trains
and always in standard class to help keep costs to a minimum.</p><p> </p><p>We are
able to provide data on hotels and rail bookings made through Redfern Travel Ltd <strong>only</strong>.</p><p>
</p><p>Please see table attached for data from 2013 – 2017.</p>
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