The government led by Rishi Sunak has disclosed that on the day when terror suspect Daniel Abed Khalife famously escaped from HMP Wandsworth, 80 prison officers did not report to work.
Despite the government’s insistence that staff shortages were not a factor in the security breach, a Tory minister admitted that nearly four in ten prison staff did not show up as expected.
On Monday (September 11), Khalife was charged with escaping from HMP Wandsworth on September 6 by attaching himself underneath a food delivery lorry. The 21-year-old former soldier, who had previously worked in the prison kitchen, was apprehended by a plain-clothes counter-terrorism officer on a canal towpath in west London on Saturday.
In response to a question from the Labour Party regarding staffing on the day of the incident, Prisons Minister Damian Hinds revealed that only 61 percent of the officers assigned to Wandsworth attended their shift. However, he also stated, “All staff in both the kitchen and the gatehouse were on duty on 6 September. An initial investigation into Daniel Khalife’s escape did not find staffing levels to be a contributing factor.”
The Sunak government has been reluctant to acknowledge staff shortages or multiple absences as contributing to the security breach. Nevertheless, an independent investigation led by former National Crime Agency head Keith Bristow is now examining broader deficiencies at Wandsworth, including security and staffing levels.
The chief inspector of prisons, Charlie Taylor, has asserted that “there are too many prisoners in Wandsworth for the amount of staff,” and he noted that staff shortages have been a recurring issue. Speaking to the BBC after the Khalife incident, he stated, “The lack of staffing has plagued the prison. I believe when we last inspected at the end of 2021, they were 30% short of staff.”
Hinds claimed that staffing levels at Wandsworth on the day of the security breach “were above the minimum staffing level required.” Approximately 125 prison officers attended their shifts at the prison, but 80 officers were absent.
Wandsworth MP Rosena Allin-Khan, who raised questions about the arrangements on the day of the alleged escape, stated that she had previously expressed concerns about “significant staff shortages” at the prison. She said, “When I visited Wandsworth prison a few months ago, the biggest issue they were facing was staff shortages. This is why I raised concerns about staffing levels – which showed that only six officers turned up for a shift one night in December. The government chose to ignore my concerns.”
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