HM Prison and Probation workforce statistics detailing staffing by establishment are published quarterly. The latest publication can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/her-majestys-prison-and-probation-service-workforce-quarterly-march-2018

Prison officer numbers are at their highest in five years, which is vital to ensuring prisons are safe, secure and decent. We now have over 3,500 additional staff in post compared to October 2016. The recruitment drive will continue until we reach required levels across the prison estate, ensuring prisons can fulfil their purpose - protecting the public, reducing reoffending and crucially, rehabilitating offenders. Increased staff numbers will enable us to implement the key worker role, giving staff dedicated time to provide one-to-one support to individual prisoners and, for example, identify where mental health support may be needed.

Staffing for prison healthcare services at HMP Risley is a matter for healthcare providers under contract to NHS England. Prison governors work collaboratively with NHS England commissioners to support the commissioning of high quality healthcare services across the prison estate in England.

The number of band 3-5 prison officers, on Full Time Equivalent (FTE) basis, as at 30^th June 2018 by length of service as a prison officer can be found in table 1 below.

Table 1: Full Time Equivalent (FTE) Band 3-5 officers¹ in post at HMP Risley, by length of service², as 30^th June 2018

1. These include Band 3-4 / Prison Officer (incl specialists), Band 4 / Supervising Officer and Band 5 / Custodial Managers.

2. Length of service is calculated from the date staff started working in an officer grade.

As I mentioned in my answer to your previous question (PQ 160083) answered on 11 July, HMP Risley has been identified to become a Foreign National Offender (FNO) establishment which will hold foreign national men of interest to the Home Office.

The transition of HMP Risley to a specialist FNO establishment will play an important part in the work of the Prison Estate Transformation Programme (PETP) to simplify the prison estate and align the supply of places with demand.

There have been no discussions with Warrington Borough Council yet, but early planning for the transition is underway and the PETP is working closely with the Governor to prepare for this change which will include liaising with all stakeholders, including relevant local authorities, to better understand implications of the changes and to assist them in preparing for the changeover.

As I mentioned in my answer to your previous question (PQ 160083) answered on 11 July, HMP Risley has been identified to become a Foreign National Offender (FNO) establishment which will hold foreign national men of interest to the Home Office.

The transition of HMP Risley to a specialist FNO establishment will play an important part in the work of the Prison Estate Transformation Programme (PETP) to simplify the prison estate and align the supply of places with demand.

There have been no discussions with Warrington Borough Council yet, but early planning for the transition is underway and the PETP is working closely with the Governor to prepare for this change which will include liaising with all stakeholders, including relevant local authorities, to better understand implications of the changes and to assist them in preparing for the changeover.

The Government set out its ambition for a reformed prison estate in the November 2016 Prison Safety and Reform White Paper.

Through the prison estate transformation programme we are getting the basics right by building decent prisons to improve rehabilitation and create safe and secure environments for staff and offenders. As well as constructing up to 10,000 new prison places we are reconfiguring the existing estate so that prisoners will be held in the right place at the right time and their rehabilitation can be managed more effectively.

HMP Risley is currently a category C training prison and a hub for foreign national offenders (FNOs) with an embedded Home Office Immigration Enforcement (HOIE) team. The Prison Estate Transformation Programme aims to simplify the estate to align the supply of prison places with demand. Part of the planned changes will see HMP Risley increase its FNO population, becoming an FNO Specialist Prison. This will allow greater concentration of those offenders of interest to HOIE, who are currently dispersed throughout the prison estate, and deliver a more focused service to these offenders.

Statistics for assaults on staff by prison are available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/safety-in-custody-quarterly-update-to-june-2016

A workshop was closed at Risley prison on 110 occasions, either for a morning or an afternoon, between 1 October 2013 and 17 January 2014.

Seven wings at the prison have been locked-down for half-a day at some point as a result of staff sickness. The prison management take every step possible to reduce this to a minimum.

There have been 76 occasions when a single wing at Risley has been locked down during lunchtime during the same period.

All unplanned regime curtailments have been caused by high levels of staff sickness absence and not staff shortages; A new strategy for managing staff sickness was introduced in February to address this. The prison remains fully resourced to deliver an effective and purposeful regime. We also recently introduced changes to the regime to rotate necessary wing closures during the core day, but ensure that workshops and education remain open at all times.

A workshop was closed at Risley prison on 110 occasions, either for a morning or an afternoon, between 1 October 2013 and 17 January 2014.

Seven wings at the prison have been locked-down for half-a day at some point as a result of staff sickness. The prison management take every step possible to reduce this to a minimum.

There have been 76 occasions when a single wing at Risley has been locked down during lunchtime during the same period.

All unplanned regime curtailments have been caused by high levels of staff sickness absence and not staff shortages; A new strategy for managing staff sickness was introduced in February to address this. The prison remains fully resourced to deliver an effective and purposeful regime. We also recently introduced changes to the regime to rotate necessary wing closures during the core day, but ensure that workshops and education remain open at all times.

A workshop was closed at Risley prison on 110 occasions, either for a morning or an afternoon, between 1 October 2013 and 17 January 2014.

Seven wings at the prison have been locked-down for half-a day at some point as a result of staff sickness. The prison management take every step possible to reduce this to a minimum.

There have been 76 occasions when a single wing at Risley has been locked down during lunchtime during the same period.

All unplanned regime curtailments have been caused by high levels of staff sickness absence and not staff shortages; A new strategy for managing staff sickness was introduced in February to address this. The prison remains fully resourced to deliver an effective and purposeful regime. We also recently introduced changes to the regime to rotate necessary wing closures during the core day, but ensure that workshops and education remain open at all times.

HM Prison Risley are unable to provide the data required within the timescale allowed. The information will follow in correspondence.

HM Prison Risley has sufficient payment plus (paid overtime) hours to cover any shortfall in the numbers of officers necessary for day-to-day operations. There has been no reduction in the level of overtime in the prison.

NOMS remains committed to tackling the supply of illegal drugs and mobile phones within prisons and deploys a comprehensive range of security measures to do so.

These measures include drug detection dogs, procedures to tackle visitors who seek to smuggle drugs and phones into prisons, and mobile phone detection technology. NOMS is also increasing the number of drug free wings in prisons, where increased security measures prevent access to drugs.

The Government has given its full support to the Prisons (Interference with Wireless Telegraphy) Bill being taken forward by Sir Paul Beresford and Lord Laming, which will create clear statutory powers for HMP Risley and other institutions to employ signal denial technology to suppress the use of mobile phones being illegally used within prisons.

HMP Risley has seen a significant decrease in the number of prisoners testing positive for drugs and the rate of positive random mandatory drug results has fallen from 11.5% in 2007-08 to 3.9% in 2011-12. Recently, the prison governor has introduced a drug recovery unit and has referred prisoners in possession of a mobile phone to the police, resulting in three recent convictions

The number of assaults on staff at individual establishments can be found in Table 3.15 of the Safety in Custody Statistics. This can be found at:

http://www.justice.gov.uk/statistics/prisons-and-probation/safety-in-custody

For the last five years the number of assaults on staff at HMP Risley are shown in the following table.

I will be sending a full written response to the Chair of the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) at Risley, addressing the concerns raised in the Board's Annual Report, as soon as the issues have been fully considered. I will forward you a copy of my reply in due course.