Recommendation 17

The pandemic and increasing demand on the justice system will continue to put pressure on staff who are at the heart of ensuring prisons are well run, court backlogs are addressed, and probation services are effective. HMPPS told us of its ongoing work to continue to recruit staff after an initial hiatus at the start of the pandemic.25 We heard that between October 2016 and September 2020, HMPPS recruited an extra 3,844 prison officers, that 1,464 officers had recently completed training and a further 522 officers are currently undergoing training.26 The Ministry also told us it has progressed well with recruiting 1,600 additional court staff as part of its work to support the court system to recover from the pandemic.27