Question
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the announcement by the Justice Secretary on 3 November that 2,500 additional prison officers are to be recruited to address issues including safety, how many officers will need to be recruited to replace existing officers as they leave the service, and over what timescale.
Answered on
14 December 2016
Last month we launched the Prison Safety and Reform White Paper and we are already implementing measures to tackle drugs, drones and phones. This major overhaul of the prison system will include the recruitment of an extra 2,500 frontline officers. Our reforms will empower governors to make the changes they need, ensuring that prisons are places of safety and reform.
Of course, people will leave the service due to retirement or other reasons, so therefore we will also be recruiting to fill those spaces. We estimate that this will lead to us recruiting 8,000 prison officers in total over the next 2 years. This means that by the end of 2018 the overall frontline workforce will have risen from 19,000 to 21,500.