Recommendation 22

We asked HMPPS what it was doing to keep prisoners safe in the context of prisons being so overcrowded.75 It explained that it had introduced three “red lines” which it had stuck to rigidly. These included: keeping at least 1,500 cells that require fire maintenance out of use so that it could continue with remediation work; only crowding cells where operational assessments had considered factors such as whether staffing and ancillary services will allow it to do so safely; and ensuring that cells were only in use if they were staffed to at least 75%.76 HMPPS explained that it was always trying to improve safety metrics, for example, by implementing airport–style security 69 Q 88 70 Q 68 71 C&AG’s Report, para 2.2 72 Q 68 73 PEC007 74 Ministry of Justice, Safety in Custody Statistics: quarterly update to September 2024 75 Q 66 76 Qq 66,69 15 to stop people bringing contraband into prisons, and helping staff or prisoners who are struggling. But it acknowledged that this was challenging even before it was running the estate at 99% occupancy.77