In line with statistical guidance and GDPR, we cannot release the requested data regarding the number of civil prisoners that are held in His Majesty’s Prison Woodhill, as this could lead to the identification of individuals, given the small sample sizes involved. There are no civil prisoners kept in its close supervision centre.

Staff and prisoners have been trained together as peace promoters and they run mediation sessions to ease conflicts between groups. These have been working to support all prisoners being able to attend communal worship. Additionally, potential conflicts between groups or individuals are discussed at a weekly Violence Reduction meeting to manage these risks moving forward. This co-ordinated, partnership approach has resulted in the successful offer of Friday Prayers to all Muslim prisoners at HMP Woodhill since 9 February.

Since 2019 there have been 11 Urgent Notifications issued. Details of each Urgent Notification and the Lord Chancellor’s response and action plan can be found on gov.uk.

The Chief Inspector of Prisons, Charlie Taylor, alerted the Lord Chancellor of his concerns at HMP Woodhill on 1 September 2023. In line with the protocol between HM Inspectorate of Prisons and the Ministry of Justice, the Lord Chancellor responded to Charlie Taylor on 29 September 2023, setting out his response and action plan. We have commenced work on all 45 actions in the initial action plan, 10 are now complete and we continue to work on the remaining 35.

We are continuing to invest in the prison estate to ensure prison places are safe, decent and secure. Over the last five years we have invested £16m at Woodhill, including upgrades to security and fire safety. A site wide programme of shower refurbishments is currently in development which will further improve levels of decency at the prison.

All public closed prisons within England and Wales which includes HMP Woodhill have a stock of pin phone handsets that are replaced on site in the event of the handset not working. If the fault is relating to cabling or port damage then the contracted supplier will attend the prison to resolve the issue.

The adjudication process, which is set out in Prison Service Instruction (PSI) 05/2018 Prison adjudications policy Prison adjudications policy: PSI 05/2018 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) provides guidance to staff on prisoner discipline procedures including Minor Reports, and handling the recovery of monies from prisoners to pay for any damage they cause to prisons or prison property.

The number and proportion of outstanding adjudication in the each of the last 12 months at HMP Woodhill are provided in the table below:

To help reduce the number of outstanding adjudications at HMP Woodhill the following steps have been taken:

The population has been reduced by 190 prisoners in order to relieve the pressure on the limited staffing resources at HMP Woodhill. The effect of this will also enable staffing levels to escort prisoners to adjudications, and release reporting officers and witnesses which will improve the level of completions. Many adjournments are caused by staff not being able to be released to attend.

Monthly ‘adjudication action days’ have been implemented, where wings are set up to simultaneously conduct remanded adjudications for prisoners across four units. This can conclude approximately 80 adjudications in a single day.

With improved staffing comes improved use of sanctions within the Incentives and Earned Privileges (IEP) process which allows staff credible alternatives to use the IEP system for prisoners on low level poor behaviour as set out in the Incentives Policy Framework: Incentives Policy Framework - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

There has been no requirement to suspend the operational running of the establishment to address the backlog of adjudications.

The timeline for staff sickness has seen a significant reduction over the last 12 months at HMP Woodhill, with a 33% reduction since the same time last year. Additionally, staff morale can also be assessed through resignation rates which have also reduced significantly over the last 12 months, with a 43 % reduction since the previous quarter.

Local data demonstrates a reduction in all incidents of indiscipline. Prisoner on prisoner assaults have reduced 23% from same time period in 2022/23 and assaults on staff are 34% lower than same time period in 2022/23.

The prison has already taken the following steps to drive improvement:

• Received support from the Standards Coaching Team, which provides prisons with advice to improve standards in priority locations.
• Temporarily reduced capacity to free up resources and support stability
• Been supported by a range of internal and external bodies to improve leadership and provide safety related training.
• Employed two New Colleague Mentors, dedicated to helping new starters settle into working in a prison in their first weeks and months in post.

The adjudication process, which is set out in Prison Service Instruction (PSI) 05/2018 Prison adjudications policy Prison adjudications policy: PSI 05/2018 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) provides guidance to staff on prisoner discipline procedures including Minor Reports, and handling the recovery of monies from prisoners to pay for any damage they cause to prisons or prison property.

The number and proportion of outstanding adjudication in the each of the last 12 months at HMP Woodhill are provided in the table below:

To help reduce the number of outstanding adjudications at HMP Woodhill the following steps have been taken:

The population has been reduced by 190 prisoners in order to relieve the pressure on the limited staffing resources at HMP Woodhill. The effect of this will also enable staffing levels to escort prisoners to adjudications, and release reporting officers and witnesses which will improve the level of completions. Many adjournments are caused by staff not being able to be released to attend.

Monthly ‘adjudication action days’ have been implemented, where wings are set up to simultaneously conduct remanded adjudications for prisoners across four units. This can conclude approximately 80 adjudications in a single day.

With improved staffing comes improved use of sanctions within the Incentives and Earned Privileges (IEP) process which allows staff credible alternatives to use the IEP system for prisoners on low level poor behaviour as set out in the Incentives Policy Framework: Incentives Policy Framework - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

There has been no requirement to suspend the operational running of the establishment to address the backlog of adjudications.

The timeline for staff sickness has seen a significant reduction over the last 12 months at HMP Woodhill, with a 33% reduction since the same time last year. Additionally, staff morale can also be assessed through resignation rates which have also reduced significantly over the last 12 months, with a 43 % reduction since the previous quarter.

Local data demonstrates a reduction in all incidents of indiscipline. Prisoner on prisoner assaults have reduced 23% from same time period in 2022/23 and assaults on staff are 34% lower than same time period in 2022/23.

The prison has already taken the following steps to drive improvement:

• Received support from the Standards Coaching Team, which provides prisons with advice to improve standards in priority locations.
• Temporarily reduced capacity to free up resources and support stability
• Been supported by a range of internal and external bodies to improve leadership and provide safety related training.
• Employed two New Colleague Mentors, dedicated to helping new starters settle into working in a prison in their first weeks and months in post.

The adjudication process, which is set out in Prison Service Instruction (PSI) 05/2018 Prison adjudications policy Prison adjudications policy: PSI 05/2018 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) provides guidance to staff on prisoner discipline procedures including Minor Reports, and handling the recovery of monies from prisoners to pay for any damage they cause to prisons or prison property.

The number and proportion of outstanding adjudication in the each of the last 12 months at HMP Woodhill are provided in the table below:

To help reduce the number of outstanding adjudications at HMP Woodhill the following steps have been taken:

The population has been reduced by 190 prisoners in order to relieve the pressure on the limited staffing resources at HMP Woodhill. The effect of this will also enable staffing levels to escort prisoners to adjudications, and release reporting officers and witnesses which will improve the level of completions. Many adjournments are caused by staff not being able to be released to attend.

Monthly ‘adjudication action days’ have been implemented, where wings are set up to simultaneously conduct remanded adjudications for prisoners across four units. This can conclude approximately 80 adjudications in a single day.

With improved staffing comes improved use of sanctions within the Incentives and Earned Privileges (IEP) process which allows staff credible alternatives to use the IEP system for prisoners on low level poor behaviour as set out in the Incentives Policy Framework: Incentives Policy Framework - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

There has been no requirement to suspend the operational running of the establishment to address the backlog of adjudications.

The timeline for staff sickness has seen a significant reduction over the last 12 months at HMP Woodhill, with a 33% reduction since the same time last year. Additionally, staff morale can also be assessed through resignation rates which have also reduced significantly over the last 12 months, with a 43 % reduction since the previous quarter.

Local data demonstrates a reduction in all incidents of indiscipline. Prisoner on prisoner assaults have reduced 23% from same time period in 2022/23 and assaults on staff are 34% lower than same time period in 2022/23.

The prison has already taken the following steps to drive improvement:

• Received support from the Standards Coaching Team, which provides prisons with advice to improve standards in priority locations.
• Temporarily reduced capacity to free up resources and support stability
• Been supported by a range of internal and external bodies to improve leadership and provide safety related training.
• Employed two New Colleague Mentors, dedicated to helping new starters settle into working in a prison in their first weeks and months in post.

The adjudication process, which is set out in Prison Service Instruction (PSI) 05/2018 Prison adjudications policy Prison adjudications policy: PSI 05/2018 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) provides guidance to staff on prisoner discipline procedures including Minor Reports, and handling the recovery of monies from prisoners to pay for any damage they cause to prisons or prison property.

The number and proportion of outstanding adjudication in the each of the last 12 months at HMP Woodhill are provided in the table below:

To help reduce the number of outstanding adjudications at HMP Woodhill the following steps have been taken:

The population has been reduced by 190 prisoners in order to relieve the pressure on the limited staffing resources at HMP Woodhill. The effect of this will also enable staffing levels to escort prisoners to adjudications, and release reporting officers and witnesses which will improve the level of completions. Many adjournments are caused by staff not being able to be released to attend.

Monthly ‘adjudication action days’ have been implemented, where wings are set up to simultaneously conduct remanded adjudications for prisoners across four units. This can conclude approximately 80 adjudications in a single day.

With improved staffing comes improved use of sanctions within the Incentives and Earned Privileges (IEP) process which allows staff credible alternatives to use the IEP system for prisoners on low level poor behaviour as set out in the Incentives Policy Framework: Incentives Policy Framework - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

There has been no requirement to suspend the operational running of the establishment to address the backlog of adjudications.

The timeline for staff sickness has seen a significant reduction over the last 12 months at HMP Woodhill, with a 33% reduction since the same time last year. Additionally, staff morale can also be assessed through resignation rates which have also reduced significantly over the last 12 months, with a 43 % reduction since the previous quarter.

Local data demonstrates a reduction in all incidents of indiscipline. Prisoner on prisoner assaults have reduced 23% from same time period in 2022/23 and assaults on staff are 34% lower than same time period in 2022/23.

The prison has already taken the following steps to drive improvement:

• Received support from the Standards Coaching Team, which provides prisons with advice to improve standards in priority locations.
• Temporarily reduced capacity to free up resources and support stability
• Been supported by a range of internal and external bodies to improve leadership and provide safety related training.
• Employed two New Colleague Mentors, dedicated to helping new starters settle into working in a prison in their first weeks and months in post.

Ensuring prison officers stay and progress their careers is a priority, and we are working hard to retain and develop clear career paths for operational staff.

HMP Woodhill has implemented an action plan focused on staff retention and improvements have been seen in attrition rates this year.

We have created a retention framework which is linked to wider activities around employee experience, employee lifecycle and staff engagement at work.

My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Justice, will publish an initial action plan by no later than 29 September 2023, addressing immediate concerns at HMP Woodhill. The prison is already taking steps to drive improvement including:

• receiving support from the Standards Coaching Team, which provides prisons with advice to improve standards in priority locations; and
• temporarily reducing capacity to free up resources and support stability.

We will be monitoring the situation at HMP Woodhill very closely to ensure there is a speedy and sustained improvement.

We strongly condemn homophobia, or any other kind of discrimination, in our prisons. As a result of the issues raised in and by the Tribunal a formal internal investigation is underway. This is being undertaken by a senior manager outside the prisons line management chain. Once that has concluded the interim Director General of HM Prisons will consider what action, including potentially disciplinary action, may be appropriate.

We hope to publish Stephen Shaw’s independent professional advice on the prevention of self-inflicted deaths and self-harm at HMP Woodhill on the website of the Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody at the earliest opportunity.

The report makes no recommendations, and as a result there is no Government response.