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Home Office;Prison Service

Answer

Mr. Battle: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prison staff have been injured due to physical assault from inmates in England and Wales; how many of these cases were pursued in the courts; and how many were dealt with under prison rule 47 in each year since 1990. [8051] Miss Widdecombe: Responsibility for this matter has been delegated to the Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given. Letter from Richard Tilt to Mr. John Battle, dated 13 December 1996: The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Question about how many prison staff have been injured due to physical assault from inmates in England and Wales; how many of these cases were pursued in the courts; and how many were dealt with under Prison Rule 47 in each year since 1990. The Prison Service expanded its Incident Reporting System to include the monitoring of injuries resulting from physical assaults by inmates from September 1995. Information prior to this date was not centrally recorded, and could only be provided at disproportionate cost. The number of reported injuries sustained by prison staff for each month since September 1995 is given in the attached table. Information concerning cases of assaults by inmates which were pursued through the courts is not collected centrally and could also only be provided at disproportionate cost. It is not possible to differentiate between inmates who have been dealt with under Prison Rule 47 in cases of assault on prison staff that have resulted in physical injury separately from those where no physical injury was sustained. The number of assaults on prison staff and others proven at adjudication in each year since 1990 are provided in the attached table. Assaults on prison staff resulting in injury _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Serious injury Other physical injury Total 1995 September 11 30 41 October 13 35 48 November 5 31 36 December 11 36 47 1996 January 13 42 55 February 7 40 47 March 3 41 44 April 5 53 58 May 3 52 55 June 7 46 53 July 2 59 61 August 5 31 36 September 3 36 39 October 1 34 35 November 4 48 52 Total 93 614 707 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. All assaults on prison staff and others proven at adjudication _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Number 1990 1,884 1991 2,118 1992 2,398 1993 2,976 1994 3,334 1995 2,990 1996{1} 2,194 _________________________________________________________________________________________________.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

8051; 287 c402-3W

Session

1996-97

Subjects

Discipline Crimes of violence Injuries Prisoners Prisons Staff

Contains statistics

Yes