Sadiq Khan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2014-04-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many assaults there were against prison officers in (a) 2010, (b) 2011, (c) 2012 and (d) 2013.

Jeremy Wright

NOMS takes the issue of assaults on prison staff very seriously. It currently has systems in place to deal with perpetrators quickly and robustly, with serious incidents referred to the police for prosecution. It is working with the police and Crown Prosecution Service to ensure that prisoners who assault staff are charged and punished appropriately.

NOMS is committed to exploring options to continue to improve how violence is tackled in prisons to keep both staff and prisoners safe. It is currently reviewing the policy and practice of the management of violence.

The number of prisoner on prison officers assault incidents in each year are provided in table 3.8 of the supplementary tables on assaults that accompany each Safety in Custody statistics bulletin. The latest publication can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/safety-in-custody.

Figures for the number of these incidents that are reported on the centralised administrative system as being referred to the police in each year are provided in table 1. These figures do not represent individuals as there may be multiple assailants in some incidents. How many of these resulted in charges or conviction can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Table 1: Number of prisoner on officer assault incidents referred to the police

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