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Written question asked by Lord Bradley (Labour) on Wednesday, 8 January 2025, in the House of Lords. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 22 January 2025. It was answered by Lord Timpson (Labour) on Wednesday, 22 January 2025 on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.

Prisons: Pepper Spray

Question

To ask His Majesty's Government on how many occasions pelargonic acid vanillylamide (PAVA) incapacitant spray has been (1) drawn, or (2) drawn and deployed, in prisons in 2022 and 2023; and what was the (a) ethnicity, (b) religion, and (c) disability status, of the prisoner involved.

Answer

The requested information, by prisoner ethnicity and religious affiliation, is provided in the tables below:

PAVA incident reports by ethnic group (2022, 2023)

 

2022

 

2022 Total

2023

 

2023 Total

Ethnic Group

Drawn and used

Drawn not used

 

Drawn and used

Drawn not used

 

Asian

42

9

51

62

11

73

Black

245

67

312

349

132

481

Mixed

53

21

74

91

47

138

Other

15

*

20

19

15

34

White

167

61

228

319

212

531

Unknown

-

*

*

*

*

*

Grand Total

522

164

686

843

418

1,261

PAVA incident reports by religion group (2022, 2023)

 

2022

 

2022 Total

2023

 

2023 Total

Religion Group

Drawn and used

Drawn not used

 

Drawn and used

Drawn not used

 

Christian

259

66

325

341

161

502

Muslim

186

54

240

335

142

477

No Religion

62

31

93

141

92

233

Other

15

13

28

24

23

47

Unknown

-

-

-

*

-

*

Grand Total

522

164

686

843

418

1,261

The Use of Force Policy Framework sets out the context in which force is used lawfully by trained prison staff as well as setting out a professional standard for using force.

All prison officers trained in how to use PAVA undergo regular refreshers which cover the lawful use of force in the custodial setting.

HMPPS is closely monitoring the use of PAVA in all sites at senior levels.

These figures have been drawn from HMPPS Management information. Care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, but the detail is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system. We do not provide exact data when the figure is five or fewer, as this risks identification of individuals. In these cases, the figure has been replaced by the symbol *. This approach is in accordance with our standards on data disclosure.

Information relating to the use of PAVA spray on prisoners with disabilities is recorded in a number of formats. To be able to identify all such cases, it would be necessary to review all potentially relevant records, and this could not be done without incurring disproportionate cost.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
HL3872
Session
2024-26
Subjects
Prisoners Prisons Pepper spray
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk