Question reference: S6W-23586
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 5 December 2023
-
Current status: Answered by Angela Constance on 19 December 2023
Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5O-03945 by Humza Yousaf on 19 December 2019, what the staff (a) recruitment, (b) retention and (c) absence rate has been at each prison and young offenders institution in the last 12 months.
Answer
I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:
The following tables set out the position in relation to recruitment (Table1), retention (table 2), and absence (table 3) across the SPS estate.
The data provided only covers operational prison officer grades, who have responsibility for delivering essential frontline services within Scotland’s prisons.
Data has been provided for the year 1 November 2022 to 31 October 2023 as data covering the period to 30 November 2023 has not yet been finalised and is therefore not available.
Table 1
Establishment | Number of new prison officers recruited between 1 November 2022 and 31 October 2023 |
Barlinnie | 59 |
Bella Centre | 6 |
Dumfries | 15 |
Edinburgh | 50 |
Glenochil | 30 |
Grampian | 24 |
Greenock | 21 |
Inverness | 13 |
Lilias Centre | 3 |
Low Moss | 18 |
Open Estate | 8 |
Perth | 28 |
Polmont | 39 |
Shotts | 27 |
Stirling | 31 |
Total | 372 |
Table 2
Establishment | Number of leavers between 1 November 2022 and 31 October 2023 across prison officer grades | Turnover % in the period vs establishment complement across prison officer grades |
Barlinnie | 54 | 10.19% |
Bella Centre | 2 | 5.75% |
Dumfries | 14 | 10.40% |
Edinburgh | 47 | 11.01% |
Glenochil | 19 | 7.90% |
Grampian | 22 | 5.27% |
Greenock | 21 | 9.89% |
Inverness | 5 | 5.41% |
Lilias Centre | 2 | 5.75% |
Low Moss | 31 | 10.54% |
Open Estate | 8 | 9.80% |
Perth | 17 | 5.65% |
Polmont | 30 | 7.25% |
Shotts | 19 | 5.80% |
Stirling | 6 | 3.07% |
Totals | 297 | 7.89% |
Table 3
Establishment | Average Working Days Lost (AWDL) figure across prison officer grades (1 Nov 2022 - 31 Oct 2023) |
Barlinnie | 22.1 |
Bella Centre | 14.2 |
Dumfries | 14.6 |
Edinburgh | 19.8 |
Glenochil | 17.6 |
Grampian | 9.5 |
Greenock | 20.5 |
Inverness | 10.3 |
Lilias Centre | 8.4 |
Low Moss | 18.7 |
Open Estate | 10.2 |
Perth | 18.8 |
Polmont | 17.1 |
Shotts | 19.1 |
Stirling | 25.5 |
Establishment Average | 18.1 |