Gavin Williamson, MP for South Staffordshire, has welcomed confirmation from the Prisons Minister that that the Ministry of Justice is developing a new joint approach to report crimes in prison.
The confirmation followed a Parliamentary Question, raised by Gavin, on what steps the Ministry is taking to ensure that any incidents of assault are vigorously investigated and that the perpetrators are appropriately punished.
The new approach, which sees the Ministry work together with the police and the Crown Prosecution Service, includes pushing for prosecutions when prison staff are attacked.
The number of assaults on prison staff remains, on average, lower than under the previous Government, which presided over an overall increase in the number of incidents reported.
However, there were still 3,148 assaults on prison staff across all UK prisons in 2013.
HMP Oakwood was the third worst prison nationally, after HMP Thameside and HMP Feltham, with 137 reported assaults.
HMP Featherstone and HMP Brinsford, also located in South Staffordshire, reported 16 assaults and 59 assaults, respectively.
Gavin said: “I am glad that action is being taken to address these appalling statistics. Prison staff are required to do an extremely difficult job, in often challenging conditions, and we need to ensure that they are free to carry out their duties without fear of being violently assaulted.
“These criminals need to learn that any violent behaviour will be met with severe punishment. It has to be made extremely clear that assaults will not be tolerated in our prisons.”
In his response, the Prison Minister, Mr. Jeremy Wright MP, stated: “We do not tolerate violence of any kind in prison and take any instance extremely seriously. We are working closely with the police and CPS to develop a new joint approach to report crimes in prison – this included pushing for prosecutions when our staff are attacked.
“We are comprehensively reviewing how we manage violence in prisons to introduce further improvements to ensure prisons are safer places for everyone.”