---

National Tactical Response Group

Answer

The National Tactical Response Group (NTRG) provide a specialist service to prisons through the deployment of staff resources with tactical and operational expertise required to bring about resolution to serious incidents of disorder. The service includes planning and preparation of tactical options to Gold, Silver and Bronze Commanders, and the implementation of those orders and this service is not solely limited to violent incident. NTRG are also the provider of training in Use of Force, developing the curriculum from which prison officers receive training in basic and advanced level control and restraint, personal protection techniques, and use of batons. They also complete cross government resilience assurance work and professional practice development around HMPPS operational response capabilities. The answers to all four NTRG related questions submitted follow below;

Number of NTRG staff in post by year
Year	Staff	Managers	Total
2010	24	3	27
2011	24	3	27
2012	24	3	27
2013	24	3	27
2014	24	3	27
2015	35	3	38
2016	41	3	44
2017	41	3	44

NTRG ATTENDANCE AT REQUESTED SITES BY YEAR
Year	HMP Buckley Hall	HMP Forest Bank	HMP Hindley	HMP Manchester
2010	1	0	0	0
2011	0	0	1	1
2012	3	1	8	1
2013	0	1	3	0
2014	2	2	33	5
2015	3	1	7	20
2016	7	1	5	7
2017	0	2	8	5

The budget allocation for National Tactical Response Group (NTRG) is shown below. These figures include pay and non-pay items (including training materials, operational incident consumables and vehicle costs). It is not possible to retrieve the 2010 data information within the time available.

NTRG Budget
2011-12	1.6m
2012-13	1.6m
2013-14	1.7m
2014-15	1.8m
2015-16	1.8m
2016-17	1.9m
2017-18	1.5m
2018-19	1.5m
2019-20	1.5m
There has been no reduction in our investment in NTRG from 2017-18, in fact the position is quite the opposite. The funding position has changed due to the transfer of NTRG staff cost from the HR Directorate into the SOCT Directorate during 2017/18. The reason for the comparative budget reduction is that HR Directorate have held onto £0.2k budget for Facilities Management costs within the Learning & Development Unit and the average pay used to set the pay budget allocation for 17/18 was based on average costs which are £7k lower than in previous years and will need to be adjusted next year to reflect Operational rather than HQ posts of approx. £0.41m. HMPPS Budgets are set at the beginning of the year, but are subject to changes and adjustments during the course of the year due to changes in scope and priorities of the business.

NTRG staff work from one of two centres, and are deployed to establishments as the need arises. The deployment of NTRG staff to establishments is managed centrally and subject to operational considerations and priorities. The decision to deploy our specialist resources can be taken as a precautionary measure, however it is usually in response to an ongoing incident or disorder.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

118200

Session

2017-19

Grouped for answer

Yes

Subjects

Prisons National Tactical Response Group

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk