Justice Secretary announces 10,000 more stab-proof vests for prison officers

Some 10,000 more prison officers will be given body armour in jails as ministers ramp up protection after a number of high-profile attacks.

Justice Secretary David Lammy announced the number of stab-proof vests will rise from 750 to 10,000 as he visited Belmarsh prison, in south-east London, home to some of the country’s most dangerous criminals.

There will be 5,000 protective vests, each individually fitted, allocated to every prison guard working in high-security facilities.

Meanwhile, 500 Tasers will be provide to trained staff in local response teams based in prisons, scaling up from the 20 provided to specialist staff when the trial started in July.

The move comes after three prison officers were taken to hospital with serious injuries after they were allegedly attacked with hot oil and makeshift weapons at HMP Frankland in April.

Manchester Arena bomb plotter Hashem Abedi has been charged with attempting to murder prison officers and is due to appear in court on September 25.

The independent reviewer of terrorism legislation Jonathan Hall KC has been appointed to lead looking at the alleged attack and make recommendations to improve safety for frontline officers.

Speaking to reporters, Mr Lammy said he read the review into the incident and that it is “horrific” what “good people” who sign up to being a prison officer were subjected to.

Mr Lammy said: “I recognise that, one, I’d like to see the number of prison officers increase, and we’re only going to achieve that if prison officers feel secure, and there is a cohort of violent, pernicious prisoners with malevolent intent.

“The system has to work hard to ensure they are not allowed, not able to achieve that malevolent intent and put any officer in a vulnerable position. So I look closely at what he recommends.”

The announcement of more equipment is backed by £15 million of funding.

Speaking to staff at Category A jail Belmarsh, 28-year-old Lewis wore a black stab-proof vest and told the Justice Secretary he thinks he has seen violence go up, adding: “I think this will deter and hopefully reduce violence.”

Asked what accounts for the violence, he listed drugs, weapons, mobile phones and people getting into debt that “spirals out of control”.

He told reporters he has had colleagues admitted to hospital and seen staff stabbed during his seven years as an officer.

On how the vest felt to wear, he said: “I could quite happily wear it all day.”

The new measures also come as legislation to tackle the prison capacity crisis was introduced to Parliament earlier this month.

The Sentencing Bill came just before Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s major Cabinet reshuffle that saw former justice secretary Shabana Mahmood replaced by Mr Lammy, and followed a year of emergency measures to tackle jail overcrowding.

Some 87,578 people were in jail as of Monday, according to figures published by the Ministry of Justice.

This is 943 fewer prisoners than the record high of 88,521 reached in September last year during the aftermath of the summer riots in towns and cities across the UK.

Mr Lammy told reporters: “I think I’m hoping, under my watch, we’ll see stability in the system, so we won’t need emergency measures.

“Shabana did a lot of work to deal with the immediate emergency, and I don’t want to suggest that this isn’t still an acute period where we have to keep a very, very close eye, both on prison places, and certainly on the backlog.”

Tory shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick welcomed the measures, adding: “Frontline officers have been left exposed for far too long.

“They cannot afford more delays – this equipment needs to reach them immediately.

“The situation in our prisons is a national security emergency. The Justice Secretary must immediately roll out anti-drone technology to stop weapons – and potentially guns – being flown into prisons.

“Every day the Justice Secretary delays, lives are put at risk.”