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1685584

registered interest
date	29/01/2024
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prison Officers: Labour Turnover
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of prison officers recruited in 2023 have left the prison service.
tabling member constituency	Brentford and Isleworth
tabling member printed	Ruth Cadbury
uin	11801
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 01/02/2024 answer text <p>The quarterly HMPPS workforce statistics publication covers staffing information, including leavers, and the latest publication covers data up to 30 September 2023. Figures for the remainder of 2023 are due for publication on 15 February 2023 and therefore this information cannot be released at this time.</p><p>In the period from 01 January 2023 to 30 September 2023, there were 3,967 band 3-5 prison officers who joined HM Prison and Probation Service. Details of the number and proportion who have left the Prison Service (including the Youth Custody Service) as of 30 September 2023 are given in the table below.</p><p>Table 1: Status of band 3-5 prison officers<sup>1 </sup>who joined<sup>2 </sup>between 1 January 2023 and 30 September 2023 - as of 30 September 2023</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Remained or left</p></td><td><p>Headcount</p></td><td><p>Percentage</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Still working in prisons ( including YCS)<sup>3</sup></p></td><td><p>3,627</p></td><td><p>91.4%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Left HMPPS altogether</p></td><td><p>340</p></td><td><p>8.6%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Total</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>3,967</strong></p></td><td><p>100.0%</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Notes</p><p>1. Includes Bands 3-4 / Prison Officer (incl specialists), Band 4 / Supervising Officer and Band 5 / Custodial Managers.</p><p>2. New recruits joining HMPPS - does not include internal transfers or conversions.</p><p>3. Even though these staff are still working in prisons they may no longer be in prison officer roles due to staff movements etc</p><p> </p><p>Appropriate staffing across our prison estate is vitally important. In line with Prisons Strategy White Paper, published in December 2021, we are committed to recruiting up to 5,000 additional prison officers across public and private prisons by the mid-2020s in line with estate expansion. The number of Full Time Equivalent (FTE) prison officers has increased over time. As of 30 September 2023, there has been increase of 1,441 FTE (6.7%) since 30 September 2022. For prison officers, there has been an increase of 632 FTE (2.8%) compared to June 2023. Over the year to 30 September 2023, 5,377 band 3 to 5 offers were appointed (consisting of new recruits and existing staff who converted to a band 3 officer grade).</p><p>In late 2021, HM Prison Service launched a retention tool kit to help Governors to tackle the main drivers of attrition in their prisons. We are using the data from this and enhanced exit interviews to better understand why employees are leaving.</p><p>HM Prison Service made a significant investment in pay for prison staff through the 2023/24 pay awards. This delivered an increase of at least 5% for all Prison Service staff, with prison officers receiving a 7% increase. Since 2019, the starting salary increased for an entry level prison officer from £23,529 to £32,851 (national rate, 39-hour week with unsocial hours).</p><p>Since April 2022, HM Prison Service have invested in several new initiatives to improve the experience of our new joiners and increase retention of our employees. These include a new peer-to-peer learning scheme, the introduction of mentors for new staff, a supervision pilot in two prisons, and new leadership training in prisons facing retention challenges.</p><p>These measures are working. In the 12 months to 30 September 2023, resignation rates for band 3-5 prison officers fell to 8.6%.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar question first answered 01/02/2024 14:13:28 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
tabling member	4389 label Biography information for Ruth Cadbury

1674029

registered interest
date	29/11/2023
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prison Officers: Labour Turnover
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to increase retention levels of experienced prison officers.
tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Hall Green
tabling member printed	Tahir Ali
uin	4563
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/12/2023 answer text <p>In late 2021, the Ministry of Justice launched a retention toolkit to help Senior Leaders across HMPPS including Governors/Directors to tackle the main drivers of attrition in their departments and improve retention levels. We are using the data from enhanced exit interviews to better understand why experienced Prison Officers are leaving.</p><p> </p><p>We made a significant investment in pay for prison staff through the 2023/24 pay award. This delivered an increase in base pay of at least 7% for all staff between bands 2 to 5 which includes Prison Officers.</p><p> </p><p>Since April 2022, we have invested in several new initiatives to increase retention of our employees including Prison Officers. These include a new peer-to-peer learning scheme, the introduction of new staff mentors to support new Prison Officers in their roles, which takes the pressure off both experienced Prison Officers and managers, and a Career Pathways framework to enable staff to identify their development needs and career aspirations. We are also running supervision pilots in two prisons alongside the introduction of new leadership training, which will contribute to supporting career development and retention of experienced officers.</p> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar question first answered 08/12/2023 14:14:16 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
tabling member	4747 label Biography information for Tahir Ali

1504740

registered interest
date	05/09/2022
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prison Officers: Labour Turnover
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the turnover of prison officers in each of the last five years, and (2) their ability to recruit prison officers needed to staff any planned new prisons.
tabling member printed	Lord Patten
uin	HL2151
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/09/2022 answer text <p>The leaving rate for prisons officers can be accessed online through HMPPS workforce quarterly, the most recent of which was for June 2022. The table below contains the leaving rate for Band 3-5 Prison officers in each of past five years:</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Year</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Leaving Rate (%)[1]</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018</strong></p></td><td><p>10.3</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019</strong></p></td><td><p>11.5</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020</strong></p></td><td><p>12.2</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021</strong></p></td><td><p>9.1</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022</strong></p></td><td><p>14.5</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>1 July 2021 to 30 June 2022</strong></p></td><td><p>15.3</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p><strong><em>Source: HMPPS Workforce Quarterly, June 2022</em></strong></p><p>[1] Leaving rate denotes the percentage of staff with a permanent contract of employment who left HMPPS, including individuals who have retired early, but excluding staff who left due to voluntary early departure schemes and redundancy (VEDSR).</p><p>We are addressing recent increases in leaving rates via dedicated recruitment and retention efforts across the board. We are also working to improve the joining experience of new employees, via increased clarity in marketing materials and increased support for new joiners via Apprenticeship coaches and New Colleague Mentors (since April 2022).</p><p>We hope that the significant rises in pay for prison staff will also help to reduce leaving rates, and we are continuing to use localised market supplements to increase prison officer pay in 18 sites.</p><p>We are committed to providing the high-quality prison places that are needed over the coming years and ensuring that they are adequately resourced and supported by sufficient prison officer staffing levels, as well as other key members of the workforce such as teachers, instructors, chaplaincy and probation staff.</p><p>The staffing requirements for new establishments continue to be assessed and factored into vacancies up to 18 months in advance in order to ensure we recruit on time and build up the experience needed to deliver safe and secure regimes</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Bellamy question first answered 20/09/2022 13:45:43 answering member 4941 label Biography information for Lord Bellamy
tabling member	1137 label Biography information for Lord Patten

1470708

registered interest
date	15/06/2022
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prison Officers: Labour Turnover
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the proportion of new prison officers who leave service after less than (a) one, (b) six, (c) 12, (d) 24 and (e) 36 months.
tabling member constituency	Easington
tabling member printed	Grahame Morris
uin	18877
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/06/2022 answer text <p>There is a national focus on improving staff retention rates across HMPPS.</p><p>This includes, but is not restricted to:</p><ul><li>Implementation of a retention strategy and toolkit within HMPPS to bring organisational consistency to how we tackle attrition</li><li>A focus on prisons with the highest attrition rates, and the main causes</li><li>National interventions to help address national themes</li><li>Tracking of local interventions to manage the micro issues within individual sites</li></ul><p>The number of prison officers who have left after less than (a) one, (b) six, (c) 12, (d) 24 and (e) 36 months' service is shown in table 1 below.</p><p>The latest set of published HMPPS workforce statistics covering the period to 31 March 2022 is available in the public domain at : <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/her-majestys-prison-and-probation-service-workforce-quarterly-march-2022/her-majestys-prison-and-probation-service-workforce-quarterly-march-2022" target="_blank">Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service workforce quarterly: March 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)</a>.</p><p>Table 1: Proportion of band 3-5 officers<sup>1</sup> who left HMPPS by length of service<sup>2</sup>, in the 12 months to 31 March 2022.</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Length of service<sup>2,3</sup></p></td><td><p>Headcount</p></td><td><p>Percentage of all leavers in period</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Less than 1 month</p></td><td><p>119</p></td><td><p>3.5%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Less than 6 months</p></td><td><p>573</p></td><td><p>16.9%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Less than 12 months</p></td><td><p>873</p></td><td><p>25.8%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Less than 24 months</p></td><td><p>1,303</p></td><td><p>38.5%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Less than 36 months</p></td><td><p>1,691</p></td><td><p>49.9%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p> </p></td><td><p> </p></td><td><p> </p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Total band 3-5 officer leavers</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>3,387</strong></p></td><td><p> </p></td></tr></tbody></table><p><strong>Notes</strong></p><ol><li>Includes Bands 3-4 / Prison Officer (incl. specialists), Band 4 / Supervising Officer and Band 5 / Custodial Managers.</li><li>Length of service in HMPPS calculated from most recent hire date. Where staff have transferred in from another Government Department or have transferred in through HMPPS taking over a function, length of service is calculated from entry to HMPPS.</li><li>Figures are given on a cumulative basis i.e., staff who fall within the shorter service groups are also included in the longer service groups.</li></ol><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Louth and Horncastle answering member printed Victoria Atkins question first answered 20/06/2022 16:49:10 answering member 4399 label Biography information for Victoria Atkins
tabling member	3973 label Biography information for Grahame Morris

1437882

registered interest
date	03/03/2022
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prison Officers: Labour Turnover
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to increase the retention rate of experienced prison officers.
tabling member constituency	Croydon North
tabling member printed	Steve Reed
uin	134022
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/03/2022 answer text <p>HMPPS has created a retention strategy for all staff within the organisation, with a clear focus on Prison Officers. The strategy allows the organisation to review the reasons Prison Officers are choosing to leave and shows us clear areas to improve the employee experience, employee lifecycle and staff engagement at work.</p><p> </p><p>This strategy also allows us to look at leaver trends, undertake in-depth exit interviews and use this information to establish the drivers of attrition in HMPPS.</p><p> </p><p>Alongside the Retention strategy HMPPS has also introduced a retention toolkit which provides interventions that can be used to address the main drivers of attrition. This ensures that action can be taken to at a local, regional or national level.</p> answering member constituency Louth and Horncastle answering member printed Victoria Atkins question first answered 09/03/2022 14:34:05 answering member 4399 label Biography information for Victoria Atkins
tabling member	4268 label Biography information for Steve Reed

1352549

registered interest
date	03/09/2021
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prison Officers: Labour Turnover
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service workforce quarterly: June 2021, published on 19 August 2021, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the (a) increase in the leaving rate for Band 3-5 prison officers and (b) fall in the proportion of Band 3-5 prison officers in post with 10 years or more of experience on the (i) speed and (ii) success of reintroduction of key worker schemes in prisons in England and Wales.
tabling member constituency	West Ham
tabling member printed	Ms Lyn Brown
uin	41772
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/09/2021 answer text <p>Having experienced staff is vital to ensuring prisons remain safe, secure and decent. HMPPS recognises the importance of retaining staff and is committed to improving retention. We want prison officers to stay and progress their careers and as such have improved our induction processes to ease transition into the job, provide care and support for our staff and offer additional training. Work to develop clear career paths and professionalise the service continues, and this should provide development and promotion opportunities for our experienced staff.</p><p> </p><p>The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted upon key worker delivery across the prison estate, with reduced Key Work and Case Management resulting from the introduction of restricted regimes under the Exceptional Delivery Models (EDMs). We are committed to ensuring that key work is reinstated fully across the male closed estate when safe to do so, and as part of recovery work and we are gradually introducing regular, quality Key Work sessions in a safe and flexible way, through the regime levels, across the male closed and women’s prison estate.</p><p> </p><p>We will continue to closely monitor the reintroduction of key work, including the impact of resourcing on this.</p> answering member constituency Cheltenham answering member printed Alex Chalk question first answered 13/09/2021 10:28:56 answering member 4481 label Biography information for Alex Chalk
tabling member	1583 label Biography information for Ms Lyn Brown

1352550

registered interest
date	03/09/2021
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prison Officers: Labour Turnover
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service workforce quarterly: June 2021, published on 19 August 2021, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the (a) increase in the leaving rate for Band 3-5 prison officers and (b) fall in the proportion of Band 3-5 prison officers in post with 10 years or more of experience on (i) safety in custody and (ii) rehabilitation of prisoners.
tabling member constituency	West Ham
tabling member printed	Ms Lyn Brown
uin	41773
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/09/2021 answer text <p>Having experienced staff is vital to ensuring prisons remain safe, secure and decent and support prisoners to lead crime free lives when they are released. HMPPS recognises the importance of retaining staff and is committed to improving retention. We want prison officers to stay and progress their careers and as such have improved our induction processes to ease transition into the job, provide care and support for our staff and offer additional training. Work to develop clear career paths and professionalise the service continues, and this should provide development and promotion opportunities for our experienced staff.</p><p> </p><p>Keeping our staff safe is of utmost importance. As such we are taking action to improve prison safety and security, alongside reforms to overhaul the system to focus on the rehabilitation of offenders. This includes the rolling out of PAVA (a synthetic pepper spray), Rigid Bar Handcuffs and Body Worn Video Cameras to prison officers across the estate which protect our staff and prisoners as they provide high-quality evidence to support prosecutions. We are also currently developing a new Safety Skills training package which will be delivered to new and existing staff.</p><p> </p><p>As part of the Offender Management in Custody (OMiC) model we have introduced a personal key worker for every prisoner. Key workers provide regular personalised support to prisoners to address issues which may lead to violence or self-harm at an early stage. We continue to upskill staff in effective use of ACCT (Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork) and CSIP (Challenge, Support and Intervention Plan), the case management models for reducing suicide and self-harm and violence in prisons.</p><p> </p><p>In the 12 months to March 2021, the number of assaults decreased 40% from the 12 months to March 2021. Prior to the pandemic there was an overall reduction of 8% in assault incidents in the 12 months to March 2020.</p> answering member constituency Cheltenham answering member printed Alex Chalk question first answered 13/09/2021 10:30:01 answering member 4481 label Biography information for Alex Chalk
tabling member	1583 label Biography information for Ms Lyn Brown

1170756

registered interest
date	14/01/2020
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prison Officers: Labour Turnover
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans he has to increase the retention of prison officers.
tabling member constituency	Slough
tabling member printed	Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi
uin	3316
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/01/2020 answer text <p>We want prison officers to have a long and successful career in HM Prison and Probation Service.</p><p>There has been a specific focus on improving the induction processes while also providing care and support for new recruits and the offer of additional training. These interventions are intended to reduce staff turnover in the early stages of employment.</p><p>The Prison Officer Entry Level Training is being redeveloped into an apprenticeship that will launch in Summer 2020. The apprenticeship aims to improve retention and build a portfolio of experience through on-site training and reflective learning over a longer period.</p><p>In addition, there is work being undertaken directly with Governors to address local issues that will support experienced staff and new recruits to remain in the service.</p><p>Staff are provided with the appropriate equipment including: PAVA spray, rigid bar handcuffs, batons and training to enable them to maintain a safe and secure workplace. The aim is to create an environment which is rewarding to work in and promotes the values needed to rehabilitate offenders. We have also rolled out our key worker model, which assigns each prisoner a dedicated officer for support. This helps to build the critical prisoner and staff relationships aimed at improving safety.</p><p>For prisons where the local labour market makes it hard to recruit and retain staff, supplements to standard base pay are used together with a tailored approach to recruitment advertising in order to ensure that we are competitive in the local employment market</p> answering member constituency South East Cambridgeshire answering member printed Lucy Frazer question first answered 20/01/2020 14:31:35 answering member 4517 label Biography information for Lucy Frazer
tabling member	4638 label Biography information for Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi

1156241

registered interest
date	24/10/2019
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prison Officers: Labour Turnover
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of employment conditions for prison officers on retention of prison officers.
tabling member constituency	Leeds East
tabling member printed	Richard Burgon
uin	5071
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 30/10/2019 answer text <p>We want prison officers to stay and progress their careers. We have improved induction processes to ease transition into the job, provide care and support for our staff and offer additional training. These measures are part of the work we are doing directly with Governors to address local issues and ensure experienced staff and new recruits remain in the service.</p> answering member constituency South East Cambridgeshire answering member printed Lucy Frazer question first answered 30/10/2019 15:37:44 answering member 4517 label Biography information for Lucy Frazer
tabling member	4493 label Biography information for Richard Burgon

1088778

registered interest
date	14/03/2019
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prison Officers: Labour Turnover
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent initiatives he has introduced to reduce the attrition rate of prison officers.
tabling member constituency	Dwyfor Meirionnydd
tabling member printed	Liz Saville Roberts
uin	232617
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/03/2019 answer text <p>We want prison officers to stay and progress their careers. We’ve improved induction processes to ease transition into the job, provide care and support for our staff and offer additional training. These measures are part of the work we are doing directly with Governors to address local issues and ensure experienced staff and new recruits remain in the service.</p><p>HMPPS heavily invests in a comprehensive range of Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) interventions which help staff feel valued and supported. The current EAP has been significantly enhanced and now includes access to specialist Trauma Support and a dedicated manager’s helpline.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Penrith and The Border answering member printed Rory Stewart question first answered 19/03/2019 17:17:56 answering member 4137 label Biography information for Rory Stewart
tabling member	4521 label Biography information for Liz Saville Roberts