Attacks on prison staff have surged to a record high according to fresh government figures that lay bare the crisis in England and Wales’ overcrowded prisons.
There were 10,605 assaults on staff last year, up 15 per cent on the year before, setting a new grim record, as attacks on other inmates and self harm incidents also rose.
The statistics, published by the Ministry of Justice on Thursday, come after police launched an investigation into an attack on three prison officers at HMP Frankland in County Durham.
Hashem Abedi, one of the men responsible for the Manchester Arena bombing, threw hot cooking oil over the officers and used “homemade weapons” to stab them, according to the Prison Officers’ Association (POA).
It comes as staff are trialling the use of stab-proof vests in some jails, while tasers will be brought in at others in a bid to deter violence as part of another pilot scheme starting this summer. Specially trained officers will also be allowed to use the pepper spray to help defuse incidents in youth offender institutions where rates of assaults on staff are significantly higher than in adult prisons.
Andrew Neilson, at the charity The Howard League for Penal Reform, said the statistics showed “the untold suffering and misery in prisons across our country”.
The new data shows that conditions in England’s jails are worsening across the board at a time when the government is desperately trying to free up space by releasing thousands of prisoners early.
In the year to March 2025, there was a 37 per cent increase in the number of deaths in prison – from 291 to 399. This was driven by rises in deaths from natural causes and deaths awaiting further information. However the number of homicides in prison each year has also increased from one to seven.
Seven homicides in jail is particularly high, with most calendar years usually seeing between zero and three such deaths, the Ministry of Justice brief noted.
Last week a 44-year-old inmate was arrested on suspicion of murder after John Mansfield, 63, was found dead in HMP Whitemoor in Cambridgeshire.
Mansfield, who was serving a life sentence for the murder of his neighbour, died from a head injury and was discovered last Sunday afternoon, a Cambridgeshire Police spokesperson said.
Separately, murderer Gareth Dack, who was jailed for a minimum of 33 years after killing grandmother Norma Bell, was found dead at HMP Frankland on Monday. The prison and probation ombudsman have said they will investigate the death.
As well as the number of recorded assaults on prison staff going up, the rate per 1,000 inmates is also on the rise. The rate of assaults on staff increased 13 per cent in the year to December 2024, and both the number and rate of assaults on staff peaked in the latest 12 months.
The rate of attacks on staff was increasing at the same pace across both the male and female prison estates.
POA national chair Mark Fairhurst said the government will be running a snap-review of the pilot on giving officers stab-proof vests, and the union is pushing for all guards to be issued with the protective gear.
Geoff Willetts, Midlands representative for the POA, has said that there has been an increasing need for the Specialist National Tactical Response Unit, a group that is deployed when incidents can’t be handled by prison staff.
Mr Neilson, from The Howard League, added: “Rising violence, self-harm and a tragically surging death toll. Almost a hundred people dead by self-inflicted means.
“There is no denying that the prison system has been asked to do too much, with too little, for too long. Steps to reduce the prison population have proven insufficient, and we are back to the brink. It is crucial that the government act fast to address the worsening conditions in our prisons, and drastically reduce prison numbers before it is too late.”
The figures come as prisons remain close to capacity, with ministers only last month forced to trigger an emergency measure to house prisoners in police cells as jails run out of space.
On Thursday, the government revealed it had freed more than 16,000 inmates early between 10 September and 31 December 2024 under its emergency scheme to free up space. That tranche of early releases came after 10,000 inmates were freed up to 70 days early in a previous scheme which failed to put a dent in the rocketing prison population.
But despite these efforts, the latest official data showed there were just 551 places remaining in men’s prisons as of 14 April, with a total of 84,210 men and 3,554 women in prisons across the country as of Monday.
That includes the incarceration of 2,600 prisoners serving now-abolished indefinite jail terms, which have left prisoners languishing for decades – including for minor crimes, at a cost of £145m to British taxpayers last year.
Analysis of official data lays bare the staggering cost of detaining more than 2,600 inmates still trapped on imprisonment for public protection (IPP) jail terms, which have left prisoners languishing for decades – including for minor crimes.
Accusing the previous Tory administration of releasing thousands of offenders “through their own, secretive early release scheme”, a Labour government source said: “They published no data and operated under a shroud of secrecy. We have been honest and transparent about the measures we had to take to fix their mess.
“And now we are taking long-term action to ensure our prisons never run out of space again.”
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said the new statistics revealed “the extent of the crisis facing our prisons, with levels of violence, assaults on staff and self-harm far too high”.
They added: “We will do whatever we can to protect our hardworking staff. The Lord Chancellor [Ms Mahmood] has announced a review into protective body armour and a trial of tasers in jails to better respond to serious incidents.
“But it is clear fundamental change is needed, which is why we’re also reforming our jails so they create better citizens, not better criminals.”
