Prison Officers

Mr. Steinberg
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the current ratio of prison officers to prisoners.

Mr. Mellor
On 1 March there were 20,360 officers (including senior and principal officers) in post in establishments and the national inmate population was 46,984, giving an overall ratio of 2·3 inmates per officer. The ratio of inmates to officers varies considerably between the different types of establishment.