More than 14,000 people are waiting for security and vetting checks before they can start work in prisons and probation. The Government has acknowledged that the delays are affecting staffing.
Justice Minister Jake Richards gave the figure to MPs on 1 June. He said that 14,694 people were “currently awaiting completion of security and vetting checks prior to commencing employment” with HMPPS. That figure applied as of 18 May.
“We acknowledge the impact lengthened timescales may have on staffing levels across the prison estate,” he added.
The backlog far exceeds the number of new staff who joined HMPPS last year. According to the latest MoJ workforce data, 6,677 people joined. HMPPS employed 65,038 full-time equivalent staff as of 31 March this year.
Mr Richards said the total covers the full onboarding pipeline. It starts when a candidate receives a provisional offer and enters pre-employment checks. It ends with a final decision on their case. The figure therefore includes people at different stages, not only those awaiting a decision. He could not say how many people had been waiting for more than six months, or for more than a year.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said the figure also covers indirectly employed roles, such as prison healthcare and education posts. It includes direct HMPPS employees as well.
Stronger checks
Mr Richards stressed that vetting matters. He called vetting “the first line of defence” in screening people who work for HMPPS or on its behalf. He said the service screens criminal histories, unethical behaviour and reputational risks, and that such careful processes take time.
In 2022 HM Inspectorate of Police, Fire & Rescue Services recommended stronger vetting checks. Mr Richards said HMPPS was now acting on that report.
The minister said HMPPS knew onboarding was taking longer and was acting on it. HMPPS and its third-party provider, Sopra Steria Ltd, are both using flexible resource allocation and overtime to limit delays. Recruitment to the vetting team has taken priority. The minister said the extra staff are now helping to reduce the backlog.
HMPPS is also working with Sopra Steria and providers to forecast future recruitment, so that it can manage spikes. Other measures include digitalising processes that staff previously handled manually. Where possible, HMPPS now runs vetting checks alongside other parts of onboarding.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said the Government had inherited a prisons system in crisis. The spokesperson said it had raised prison officers’ salaries to over £37,000. Resignation rates, the spokesperson added, were at their lowest level in five years.
