Official Statistics

Title - HM Prison and Probation Service COVID-19 Statistics, February 2023

Published 10 March 2023

Introduction

This official statistics release provides monthly data on the spread of COVID-19 in the prison and probation service in England and Wales and mitigating actions being taken to limit the spread of the virus and save lives. This release covers the period from Monday 16 March 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 outbreak to 23 February 2023 for testing data. Data about deaths of individuals is included to the end of February 2023.

It provides information on:

• Deaths where prisoners, children in custody or supervised individuals have died having tested positive within 60 days, in England and Wales, of the death or where there was a clinical assessment COVID-19 was a contributory factor in their death regardless of cause of death.

• Prisoners and children in custody who have had a confirmed case of COVID-19 (i.e. a positive test).

• Narrative on capacity management data for prisons.

Key Findings

The key findings in this release are:

• 307 prisoners and supervised individuals have died having tested positive within 60 days of death or where there was a clinical assessment COVID-19 was a contributory factor in their death. Of whom 215 were prisoners and 92 were individuals supervised by the probation service. There were no deaths in February 2023. There was an historic death reported during the month. There have been no deaths of children in custody.

• Of the 307 deaths, 243 were suspected or confirmed to be caused by COVID-19, of whom 160 were prisoners and 83 were supervised individuals. Of the 33 deaths since February 2022, 9 are suspected or confirmed to be due to COVID-19.

• 49,510 prisoners or children in custody have tested positive for COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, across 130 establishments, almost all of whom were adults.

• There were 201 new confirmed cases in February 2023, this is 53 fewer than in January 2023.

• 32 establishments had prisoners testing positive in February 2023, a decrease of 4 compared with January 2023.

Due to changes in data collection, this document will be the last publication in this series of HM Prison and Probation Service COVID-19 Official Statistics.

Background

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been keen public and Parliamentary interest in how the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) and His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) are managing the running of prisons and the probation system to limit the spread of the virus while maintaining the core functions of these vital parts of the justice system. Publishing this data aims to bring transparency to the strategies HMPPS is employing to manage the prison and probation systems, as well as the impact of the virus on the individuals in the care of HMPPS and staff.

The core tenet of HMPPS’s prison strategy, building on UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) advice and learning developed in managing an early outbreak of the virus, was the implementation of effective isolation, reverse cohorting of new entrants to custody, and shielding of vulnerable prisoners. In May 2022, COVID-19 Gold command was stood down, and as part of the ‘Living with COVID’ government strategy, many of these central controls shifted from centrally directed to local decision making in response to remaining COVID risk, in partnership with Health Protection Teams.

Asymptomatic testing ceased on 31 August 2022 in England and 8 September 2022 in Wales. Symptomatic testing and testing to return to work or return to regime continues for the time being.  Wider COVID-19 testing may be reintroduced in response to local risk. HMPPS continue to support the rollout of vaccinations by healthcare teams to the prison population. Information has been available in establishments for Winter vaccination programs both for COVID-19 and influenza.

1. Capacity management

On 6 June 2022, the HMPPS Compartmentalisation and Protective Isolation Policy Framework was published on gov.uk. It replaced all previous cohorting and compartmentalisation guidance and provided the estate with an interim policy framework which sets out clearly how people may be held apart from others if public health advise is that is necessary. These and other measures continue to minimise the risk of infection spreading throughout prisons.

2. Deaths

The service has taken the measures outlined to limit the spread of the virus and to protect staff and individuals in the care of HMPPS. However, prisons and probation, like all other sectors in the England in Wales have experienced deaths due to COVID-19.

The counting of deaths in prisons and probation are aligned to the UK Health Security Agency definition, and reports on deaths where the individual had tested positive for COVID-19 or where there was a clinical assessment that COVID-19 was a contributory factor in their death. This consists of:

• Deaths suspected or confirmed to be due to COVID-19

• Deaths believed to be due to other causes, but where the individual had tested positive for COVID-19.

From March 2020 to the end of February 2023, 307 individuals died in the care of HMPPS having tested positive for COVID-19 within 60 days of death or where it was confirmed post-mortem as a contributing factor. 215 of the 307 individuals were prisoners. There were no deaths of children in custody. 92 of the 307 individuals who died were being supervised in the community ^{[footnote 1]}. Three deaths in the community occurred in September and October 2022 and are the first deaths reported of individuals supervised in the community since January 2022.

Figure 1 shows the cumulative numbers of prisoner and supervised individual deaths since March 2020.

Figure 1: Cumulative number of individuals in the care of HMPPS in prison and supervised in the community who have died testing positive within 60 days of the death or where it was confirmed post-mortem, England and Wales, monthly from March 2020 (Source: Summary Tables, Table 1)

55 deaths occurred before July 2020, 167 deaths between October 2020 and April 2021 and 84 deaths since July 2021. Of these 84 deaths, 8 have been since October 2022. There were no deaths in February 2023.

Of the 215 prisoner deaths, 160 are suspected or confirmed to be due to COVID-19. The remaining 55 deaths are believed to be due to other causes, although the individuals had tested positive for COVID-19. Of the 92 individuals under probation supervision who have died, 83 are suspected or confirmed to be due to COVID-19 with the remaining 9 believed to be due to other causes, but where the individual has tested positive for COVID-19.

The cause of death in each case is provisional until the official cause of death has been determined by the coroner. As such revisions may be made to the data as part of this process.

Data relating to the deaths of prison and probation officers to 31 July 2022 have been published in the HMPPS Workforce Statistics. This is the most recent data available as COVID-19 Statistics are no longer produced for this publication. Data relating to the deaths of service users have also been published in the National Statistics report Safety in Custody and in the official statistics report Deaths of Offenders in the Community.

3. Testing

Throughout the pandemic HMPPS has been working closely with the Department of Health and Social Care, the NHS, and public health colleagues in England and Wales in determining the appropriate COVID-19 testing regime and providing access to test kits.  The testing regime has varied as testing capacity and policy changed in response to the risks presented.  Mass testing of prisoners and staff has on occasions been undertaken at sites in outbreak following the recommendations of the public health led Outbreak Control Teams.  Consequently, COVID-19 testing practices in prisons and Youth Custody Service (YCS) sites have varied considerably throughout the pandemic.  Data trends should be considered with caution and do not represent true like-for-like comparisons over time.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to 23 February 2023^{[footnote 2]}, a cumulative total of 49,510 ^{[footnote 3]} prisoners or children in custody tested positive for COVID-19 across 130 establishments. Less than 1% (443) of these positive tests were children. There were 201 new confirmed cases in February 2023, this is 53 fewer new cases than occurred in January 2023.

Figure 2 shows the cumulative monthly individuals testing positive for COVID-19 to the end of February 2023.

Figure 2: Cumulative number of prisoners and children in custody testing positive for COVID-19, England and Wales, monthly from March 2020 (Source: Summary Tables, Table 2).

32 establishments had prisoners or children testing positive during February 2023, a decrease of 4 compared with January 2023.

Figure 3 shows the number of establishments with prisoners or children testing positive each month since March 2020.

Figure 3: Number of Prison or Youth Custody Service establishments with prisoners or children in custody testing positive for COVID-19, England and Wales, monthly from March 2020 (Source: Summary Tables, Table 2).

Data Quality

Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system. Any inaccuracies may result in revisions of previously published information in future releases. Much of the data collected during the COVID-19 pandemic has been done at pace, with recording practices evolving as we understand more about the requirements and conditions we are facing. In order to present the timeliest information, the data presented in this report have not been subjected to the usual standard of quality assurance associated with official statistics.

Much of the data will undergo additional assurance in due course and be reported as official statistics in the following releases:

• Safety in Custody

• Deaths of Offenders in the Community

All deaths are phoned into MOJ headquarters on a daily basis. The cause of deaths in prison are classified as apparent until a police investigation and coroner’s inquest have been concluded and the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman’s office publish a detailed ‘Fatal Incident Report’. Recording practices for COVID-19 related deaths have been updated since the start of the pandemic, meaning the exact cause is not always available or known. Furthermore, the cause of many deaths will be uncertain and awaiting an inquest; we have taken steps to reflect this uncertainty by reporting all cases in which COVID-19 was suspected to be a factor.

Contact points

Press enquiries should be directed to the Ministry of Justice press office:

Email: PressOfficePrisonsDesk@justice.gov.uk

Tel: 020 3334 3536

Other enquiries about these statistics should be directed to:

Ed Rowland

Email: PPRWS_Correspondence@justice.gov.uk

This is the final publication in this series, there will be no further updates.

© Crown copyright

Produced by the Ministry of Justice

Alternative formats are available on request from PPRWS_Correspondence@justice.gov.uk

1. On the 26 June 2021 the National Probation Service was renamed the Probation Service and took on responsibility for supervising low and medium risk offenders previously managed by Community and Rehabilitation Companies. ↩

2. Testing data is only up to 23 February 2023 as that was the last working day in the month the testing data was centrally collected. ↩

3. This number includes prisoners or children in custody that may have contracted COVID-19 more than once. ↩