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1141688

registered interest
date	24/07/2019
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prisons: Safety and Staff
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the effect on (a) the safety of prisoners and (b) the levels of staffing in prisons in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.
tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Selly Oak
tabling member printed	Steve McCabe
uin	281562
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/09/2019 answer text <p>In common with all Government Departments, the Ministry of Justice has considered the impact of a No Deal Brexit on its institutions, including prisons.</p><p> </p><p>Preparations are underway to ensure we are ready to leave the European Union on 31 October, with or without a deal. This includes working closely with the Department of Health to make sure that the supply of health products to prisoners is not disrupted; ensuring that our food and retail contracts have alternative arrangements in case of disruption through ports; and co-operating with other government departments to prepare for contingencies such as potential traffic disruption in the South East.</p><p> </p><p>At a local level, all prisons have reviewed their contingency plans and are engaged with their Local Resilience Forums to put in place actions to mitigate against any potential impacts as necessary.</p><p> </p><p>Separately, over the past 3 years, we have invested £100m to provide additional Prison Officers to improve frontline safety, security and rehabilitation. The benefits of this are already being felt with 4675 on landings and a commitment to recruit more in line with business needs.</p> answering member constituency South East Cambridgeshire answering member printed Lucy Frazer question first answered 03/09/2019 14:26:52 answering member 4517 label Biography information for Lucy Frazer
tabling member	298 label Biography information for Steve McCabe

1141890

registered interest
date	24/07/2019
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prison Officers
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 17 May 2019 to Question 252665 on Prison Officers, what assessment he has made of the effect on levels of prison violence of the loss of over 80,000 years of prison officers' cumulative length of service.
tabling member constituency	Leeds East
tabling member printed	Richard Burgon
uin	281831
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/09/2019 answer text <p>The causes of violence in prison are complex, but we know that the skills and availability of staff play a critical role in maintaining order. We have recruited over 4,700 more prison officers since October 2016, and we now have the greatest number in post since early 2012. We have established a new Standards Coaching Team of experienced officers from across the estate who have been trained in coaching skills. They are advising these new staff on standards and consistency, and working with them to build their confidence.</p><p> </p><p>Recruiting so many new officers inevitably means there are more staff and more leavers. We are working hard to retain staff, with the biggest pay increase in a decade and additional training so they stay and progress their careers.</p><p> </p><p>The key worker scheme is already showing promising signs of effectiveness and has started in all 92 closed adult male prisons, with over 30,000 prisoners having an assigned key worker who has dedicated time each week to work with them. The Challenge, Support and Intervention Plan case management process for prisoners at risk of violence is fully in place in all prisons. We are improving perimeter security and using other equipment such as body scanners to address the supply of drugs. We are giving officers tools like PAVA pepper spray and body-worn cameras to make their jobs safer. We have announced an extra £100 million for security, on top of the £70 million we were already spending to make prisons more secure and decent.</p><p> </p><p>We are confident that these initiatives, together with the many other measures that we are taking to protect our staff, will reduce the level of violence in prisons.</p> answering member constituency South East Cambridgeshire answering member printed Lucy Frazer question first answered 03/09/2019 14:37:00 answering member 4517 label Biography information for Lucy Frazer
tabling member	4493 label Biography information for Richard Burgon

1141891

registered interest
date	24/07/2019
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prisons: Private Sector
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to Written Statement of 22 July 2019 on Prisons and Probation, HCWS1783, what assessment he has made of how partnering with the private sector to operate prisons offers value for money.
tabling member constituency	Leeds East
tabling member printed	Richard Burgon
uin	281832
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/09/2019 answer text <p>A balanced estate, with a mix of public, voluntary and private sector involvement has been shown to introduce improvements and deliver value for money for the taxpayer. The private sector has an important role to play in our system; it has led the way in driving innovation in areas such as in-cell technology and family support services.</p><p> </p><p>Some privately run prisons are among the best performing across the estate. For example, HM Inspectorate of Prisons said in July 2018 that Oakwood is an “impressive prison” and found it to be reasonably good or better on all four healthy prison tests (safety, respect, purposeful activity, and rehabilitation and release planning). General living conditions, staff-prisoner relationships and prisoner consultation were reported to be very good or excellent.</p><p> </p><p>To manage the performance indicators set out in the contracts, each privately managed prison has a full-time on-site Controller, Deputy Controller and Assistant Controller, all employed by HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS). The Controller has regular review meetings with the contractor against a range of performance indicators that will reflect numbers of staff in post, recruitment, training, sickness, and attrition. Where action is needed, progress is monitored by the Controller and escalated within HMPPS where appropriate action can be taken in accordance with the contract. This may include a requirement for urgent improvement and/or financial deductions.</p><p> </p><p>The Prison Operator Framework will increase the diversity and resilience of the custodial services market in England and Wales, by creating a pool of prison operators who can provide high quality, value for money, custodial services and enable us to effectively and efficiently manage a pipeline of competition over the next six years. The MoJ sets out very clearly the standards that all private prison operators are required to deliver. Bids will be subject to value for money and affordability tests. Contracts will not be awarded if bids do not meet quality or value for money thresholds based on a public sector benchmark, and in this scenario, HMPPS would act as the provider.</p><p> </p><p>Although privately managed prisons do face many of the same challenges encountered in public sector prisons, by providing good quality custodial and rehabilitation services, private operators are helping us to reduce reoffending and deliver long term savings to the taxpayer.</p> answering member constituency South East Cambridgeshire answering member printed Lucy Frazer question first answered 03/09/2019 14:37:37 answering member 4517 label Biography information for Lucy Frazer
tabling member	4493 label Biography information for Richard Burgon

1141892

registered interest
date	24/07/2019
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prisons: Staff
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effect of (a) prison violence and (b) exposure to new psychoactive substances on the (i) physical and (ii) mental health of prison staff.
tabling member constituency	Leeds East
tabling member printed	Richard Burgon
uin	281833
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/09/2019 answer text <p>The physical, emotional and social wellbeing of our staff is paramount. All HMPPS staff have access to an occupational health service, and employee assistance programme. This includes 24-hour, 365 days a year access to signposting and counselling, and trauma support services.</p><p>Violence against our hard-working staff will never be tolerated. The Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act came into force in November and doubled sentences for those who attack emergency workers, including prison officers. Post-incident care teams, occupational health support, counselling and clinical treatment are available for those who experience trauma while doing their jobs.</p><p> </p><p>We are investing £100 million investment to boost security and combat crime in prisons. Tough airport-style security, including x-ray scanners and metal detectors, will be put into prisons across the estate to clamp down on the drugs, weapons and mobile phones that fuel violence – increasing the risk to our officers and hindering rehabilitation.</p><p> </p><p>Psychoactive substances have presented a particular challenge and in September 2016, we became the first prison service in the world to introduce innovative mandatory drug tests for these substances, a significant step in tackling the supply and use of them.</p><p>Following reports from staff of the effects of secondary inhalation Her Majesty's Prison &amp; Probation Service commenced work with unions, independent scientists and clinicians to assess the impact of reported secondary exposure to psychoactive substances. A programme of voluntary post-exposure biological testing of staff is now being expanded and will enable an assessment of the biological effects on staff to be made.</p> answering member constituency South East Cambridgeshire answering member printed Lucy Frazer question first answered 03/09/2019 14:23:16 answering member 4517 label Biography information for Lucy Frazer
tabling member	4493 label Biography information for Richard Burgon

1141893

registered interest
date	24/07/2019
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prison Officers: Older Workers
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the physical ability of prison officers to work in front-line roles above the age of 60.
tabling member constituency	Leeds East
tabling member printed	Richard Burgon
uin	281834
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/09/2019 answer text <p>To become a prison officer you must attend an Area Recruitment Centre (ARC) and pass all elements consisting of literacy and numeracy tests, situational judgment tests and physical and medical tests. These determine a candidate’s suitability for the role and do not take into account a candidate’s age or gender, which prevents any unlawful discrimination. There are four elements of the fitness test including grip, agility, bleep test and holding a shield. All of these elements need to be passed for the candidate to pass the fitness part of the assessment.</p><p> </p><p>All prison officers who joined the service after April 2001 must pass an annual fitness test in order to remain a prison officer. Staff who do not meet the annual fitness test standard will be provided with advice and support by a fitness assessor on achieving and maintaining the required fitness level.</p><p> </p><p>There are many factors which determine a person’s ability to pass a fitness test which could not be determined by their age alone.</p> answering member constituency South East Cambridgeshire answering member printed Lucy Frazer question first answered 03/09/2019 14:19:29 answering member 4517 label Biography information for Lucy Frazer
tabling member	4493 label Biography information for Richard Burgon