Shortage of 700 ‘Tornado squad’ prison riot officers despite rising violence in crisis-hit jails

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The quantity of prison officers educated to take care of riots as half of so-called Tornado squads has plummeted by a 3rd, The Independent can reveal, as new figures lay naked the staffing disaster blighting UK jails.

The officers, who’re half of 50-strong teams armed with batons and shields, noticed a surge in deployment in prisons final yr because the beleaguered system battles a surge in violence and dysfunction amid a staffing disaster and overcrowding.

Their depletion coincides with a spike in violence in prisons; despite demand for his or her specialist abilities at its highest in years, ministers have admitted practically 700 fewer of these prison officers can be found than in 2018, when 2,310 had been available to deal with probably the most severe prison disturbances.

The “concerning” figures, triggered by a surge in such officers quitting the service, have prompted fears that jails have gotten more and more weak to violence, instability and management by gangs. Justice secretary Alex Chalk is alleged to have warned Rishi Sunak that the overcrowding disaster may quickly set off a wave of riots.

Tornado squads had been deployed 13 instances in prisons final yr alone, greater than any yr since at the very least 2018 and up from a mid-Covid low of simply 4 instances in 2021, a collection of parliamentary questions by Labour has uncovered.

More than half of Tornado squad callouts over the previous two years had been to younger offender establishments and ladies’s prisons, minister Edward Argar advised his Labour counterpart Ruth Cadbury.

It comes as figures present assaults on prisoners and workers soared by 20 per cent in the yr to September, with greater than 25,000 incidents in a single yr. Violence in the ladies’s property skyrocketed to an all-time excessive, overtaking males’s prisons for the primary time.

Shadow justice secretary Shabana Mahmood advised The Independent: “No wonder these new figures show a huge decrease in the number of specialist officers who can be deployed to deal with dangerous and difficult situations across our prison estate – including riots.

“This is yet another sign of the scale of the crisis in our prisons, and the failure by the government to take this crisis seriously.”

In addition to Tornado squads, which comprise native officers who volunteer to be deployed to deal with harmful conditions throughout the prison property, a separate specialist group – usually described because the prison system’s SAS – was known as out greater than twice a day final yr.

Routinely armed with pepper spray, smoke bombs and batons, and sporting flameproof uniforms, anti-stab safety vests and armoured gloves, National Tactical Response Group models had been deployed 794 instances in 2023 – a rise of practically 40 per cent on the earlier yr.

While Mr Argar advised parliament that the federal government has no minimal staffing requirement for Tornado squads, unions counsel a contingency of at the very least 2,100 volunteers is the official suggestion – nicely above the 1,592 accessible in November, which rose barely to 1,620 final month.

Warning that prisons are working beneath “extreme pressure” with a present “concentration of higher risk, more violent prisoners” amid emergency measures to launch lower-risk offenders early, Tom Wheatley, head of the Prison Governors Association, mentioned: “This makes it more likely that there will be disorder.

“Despite [the Prison Service] training more new Tornado officers than ever, retention rates are alarmingly low. This is of concern to prison governors, as the ability to swiftly restore order and control in our prisons is essential to maintaining prison capacity and the safety of staff, prisoners and the public.”

Expressing “alarm but not surprise” on the drop in Tornado volunteers, the Prison Officers Association warned it couldn’t recall a time the place there was a scarcity of curiosity in finishing up Tornado roles –and mentioned the 1,592 officers accessible in November may nicely be an all-time low.

“[Officers] don’t get any real additional payments for putting themselves on the line. There’s no real difference between rate of pay for Tornado duty and bed watch,” the union’s chief Steve Gillan advised The Independent, including: “They’ve taken them for granted, and now it’s come home to roost.”

Labelling the scarcity “a wake-up call for everyone” which “could have a knock-on effect” for workers and prisoner security, Mr Gillan warned: “The last thing you want is not having enough trained personnel to deal with incidents throughout the service.”

“Officers are nearly on their knees, morale is rock bottom,” he added. “The prison service is just in crisis on everything – from overcrowding to assaults rising, to Tornado incidents on the rise. Officers are stretched to the limit.”

The justice secretary introduced drastic measures this week to launch prisoners as much as 60 days early after prisons got here dangerously near operating out of area, and is alleged to have warned Downing Street that the disaster may quickly set off riots.

Mr Gillan added: “There’s no denying there can be a risk of disorder, and that’s a real concern because that means potentially more prisons being put out of action,” he mentioned, including: “We can’t afford that at the moment. We need an adult conversation in this country about how many people we lock up.

“When the Strangeways riot happened in 1990, there were 43,000 prisoners then and they were talking about overcrowding then as one of the causes. So it appears we’ve learnt nothing – because 40 years later, we’ve now got 88,000 prisoners.”

Echoing calls by HM chief prisons inspector Charlie Taylor to this publication in December, he urged all political events to cease posturing and mentioned: “We need an adult conversation in this country about how many people we’re going to continue to lock up”, reiterating calls for for a “root and branch” royal fee into the state of the justice system.

A Prison Service spokesperson mentioned: “The safety of our staff and prisoners is our priority which is why we’re bolstering our Tornado teams by training more than 800 staff this year to deal with serious incidents. This is on top of our £100m investment into tough security measures to clamp down on violence and improve safety.”