Assaults on prison officers in prisons are increasing, but more than a third of the reported assaults are not being fully investigated.

Ministry of Justice data shows that 36% of investigations into assaults on prison officers at work were not completed in the last year. This is while there has been a continual rise in the number of assaults on prison staff, reaching a new high of 10,281 reported incidents in England and Wales, a 23% increase on the year before, according to Ministry of Justice statistics.

With increasing case backlogs, it’s easier for management to ‘write off assaults and blame “natural justice” because they took too long to do it’ according to Ian Carson, a former prison officer and national representative for the Prison Officers’ Association.

Following filing a report, officers have found their concerns for their safety ignored and are being asked to continue to interact with the prisoner who assaulted them. The Observer reported that one officer was sexually assaulted in a prisoner’s cell but told to ‘deal with it’ after suggesting she did not want to work with that prisoner in his cell again. Another officer was instructed to collect the prisoner who assaulted him from segregation. It is also claimed that investigations have also failed to follow policy to report all cases of sexual assault to the police.

According to the investigation by the Observer, the high number of incomplete investigations has also led to officers being reluctant to report incidents as they were told to ‘grow up’. Officers were also concerned that prisoners felt emboldened if reports were dropped during an investigation, leading to further conflict.

In a debate in Parliament in March 2024, former Minister of State for Justice, Edward Argar, highlighted that the government had introduced prevention methods to reduce the number of assaults. Investing £100 million in prevention methods such as body cameras and incapacitant spray (similar to pepper spray) in male prisons.

Prison minister Lord Timpson has previously suggested the continual increase in assaults on prison officers demonstrates ‘prisons are failing their basic function to cut crime’ and highlights a failure to rehabilitate prisoners and protect their staff.

A spokesperson for the MoJ, told the Observer: ‘This government inherited a prison system plagued by violence and overcrowding and is committed to reforming it to protect staff and cut crime.

‘All assaults on staff are taken extremely seriously and are dealt with either through the adjudication process or through reporting to the police so that those responsible are punished.’