We are unable to provide the data requested as, whilst we do hold data on the number of staff dismissed or prosecuted, this data is not held in one central place but is instead split across several datasets. We have investigated the link between these datasets but we cannot be certain that the data can be matched accurately.

Dismissal due to inappropriate relationship with a prisoner/ex-prisoner is a very rare occurrence given we have over 20,000 prison officers in employment.

Over the last few years we have continued to increase in capacity and deliver our counter-corruption strategy. Through the £100 million Security Investment Programme announced in August 2019, over 100 new staff were recruited into the Counter Corruption Unit. This includes regional 'Prevent' teams, dedicated to building staff resilience through training, awareness raising and individual support.

The number of band 3-5 prisons officers who were recommended for dismissal for having an inappropriate relationship with a prisoner/ex-prisoner is given in table 1 below. It is not recorded centrally whether the relationship was intimate or not.

Inappropriate relationships with prisoner(s) can result in conviction of criminal offence(s). This data does not include summary dismissals as a result of staff being convicted of criminal offences.

Dismissal due to inappropriate relationship with a prisoner/ex-prisoner is a very rare occurrence given public sector prisons have over 20,000 prison officers in employment.

Over the last few years we have continued to increase in capacity and deliver our counter-corruption strategy. Through the £100m Security Investment Programme announced in August 2019, over 100 new staff were recruited into the Counter Corruption Unit. This includes regional 'Prevent' teams, dedicated to building staff resilience through training, awareness raising and individual support.

The vast majority of prison staff are hardworking and dedicated. A minority of staff engage in corrupt activity which is often as a result of conditioning and manipulation by prisoners.

HM Prison & Probation Service has a zero-tolerance policy to drugs conveyed into prisons and take appropriate action in respect of the small number of prison staff who break the rules. Our £100m Security Investment Programme (SIP), aimed at reducing crime in prisons, including reducing the conveyance of illicit items such as drugs and mobile phones, is ongoing. This includes increased resource to pursue corruption, as well as established a new ‘Prevent’ function, aimed at building staff resilience against corruption.

Our £100 million Security Investment Programme aimed to improve security with a focus on technology, such as X-ray body scanners. This aimed to improve our ability to detect and disrupt drugs from entering prisons, supported by enhancements to intelligence and counter corruption capabilities.

Over the last few years, we have continued to increase in capacity and deliver our counter-corruption strategy. Through the £100m SIP investment over 100 new staff were also recruited into the Counter-Corruption Unit. This includes regional Prevent teams dedicated to building staff resilience through training, awareness raising and individual support.

Given the investment and measures outlined above, the increase in instances outlined below may reflect better detecting and reporting of drugs conveyance, as opposed to an increase in activity.

Source: Linkspace Case Management System.

Notes:

Linkspace is the Counter Corruption Unit’s (CCU) Case Management System used to record and track cases linked to corruption.

Data provided by the Counter Corruption (CCU) have the following Caveats applied below;

1) Prior to April 2019, corruption in HMPPS was managed by the Corruption Prevention Unit (CPU). The CPU was a largely centralised unit focused on sanitising and disseminating all corruption related intelligence to the Police, with an individual Regional Corruption

Prevention Manager (RCPM) in each geographical region offering advice and support to prisons in managing corruption, hence data prior to April 2019 is not available.

2) ‘Supplying and transporting’ of drugs in a prison falls under the definition of ‘conveyance of drugs’ and recorded on the CCU’s Case Management System to cases linked to drugs related offences.

3) Data includes Prison Custodial Officer (PCO) and they are the equivalent to a Prison Officer in a privately run establishment.

The HM Prison and Probation Service workforce quarterly publication covers staffing information, including the number of leavers by reason for leaving by grade. The latest publication covers data up to 30 September 2023. The figures requested can be found in Table 14b of this publication and have been reproduced below:

Table 1: Band 3-5 Prison Officer dismissals by reason in the 12 months to September 2023

*‘Medical Inefficiency’ is a technical term which has been used to ensure the terminology in this response is aligned with the definitions used in published workforce statistics.

Notes to Table 1:

1. Band 3-5 Prison Officers includes Band 3-4 / Prison Officer (incl specialists), Band 4 / Supervising Officer and Band 5 / Custodial Managers.
2. Figures relating to current financial year are provisional, and may be subject to change in future.
3. As with all HR databases, extracts are taken at a fixed point in time, to ensure consistency of reporting. However the database itself is dynamic and where updates to the database are made late, subsequent to the taking of the extract, these updates will not be reflected in figures produced by the extract. For this reason, HR data are unlikely to be precisely accurate.

The quarterly HMPPS workforce statistics publication covers staffing information, including leavers by reason for leaving. The latest publication covers data for up to the period 30 June 2023.

In the 12 months to 30 June 2023, 8 staff have retired and 10 staff have been dismissed from HMP Wandsworth.