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<p>HM Prison & Probation Service is proactive in detecting, investigating and
taking disciplinary action against the small number of prison staff who break the
rules, and involve the police where appropriate.</p><p> </p><p>We are also spending
£100m on tightening up prison security, including through X-Ray body scanners and
drug dogs to stop contraband getting into our prisons</p><p> </p><p>Prison officers
who are found to be unfit for duty through drug abuse or taking prohibited drugs while
at work or on duty are subject to procedures set out in the HMPPS Conduct and Discipline
policy. Such misconduct may lead to disciplinary action up to and including dismissal.</p><p>
</p><p>In the last ten years, 33 prison officers have faced a disciplinary action
charge linked to drink and drug related offences and I have included a further year-by-year
breakdown of these charges below. Currently, HMPPS records drink and drugs charges
within the same category on their HR system. It is therefore not possible to provide
data for drug offences alone.</p><p><strong>Table 1: Band 3-5 Prison Officer staff
charged with selected offences related to drink and drugs, 2011/12 to 2020/21</strong></p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>2011/12</p></td><td><p>2012/13</p></td><td><p>2013/14</p></td><td><p>2014/15</p></td><td><p>2015/16</p></td><td><p>2016/17</p></td><td><p>2017/18</p></td><td><p>2018/19</p></td><td><p>2019/20</p></td><td><p>2020/21
(p)</p></td><td><p>Total</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>~</p></td><td><p>7</p></td><td><p>~</p></td><td><p>3</p></td><td><p>4</p></td><td><p>5</p></td><td><p>~</p></td><td><p>4</p></td><td><p>~</p></td><td><p>5</p></td><td><p>33</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>
</p><p><strong>Source: </strong>NOMS Case Management Application and HMPPS electronic
Performance Management (ePM)</p><p><strong>Notes:</strong></p><p>1). Band 3-5 Officers
includes Band 3-4 / Prison Officers (incl specialists), Band 4 / Supervising Officers,
and Band 5 / Custodial Managers.</p><p>2). Conduct and discipline cases are defined
as where a penalty has been imposed on a member of HMPPS staff for a reason of conduct.</p><p>3).
Staff with at least one conduct and discipline case concluded during the year.</p><p>4).
A case is defined as a unique combination of case and individual member of staff.
Where more than one member of staff is involved in a single case these are counted
separately in this table. Equally staff involved in more than one case during the
year are counted multiple times.</p><p>5). The disciplinary charges include the following:</p><p>-
Unfit for duty through drink/drugs</p><p>- Trafficking and sub charge of drugs</p><p>-Criminal
conviction and sub charge of possession /supply of drugs</p><p> </p><p>It is impossible
to separate out drinks and drugs, therefore, the table above may over represent officers
subject to disciplinary action due to drugs.</p><p>~ 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.</p><p>(p) Provisional data</p>
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