<p>Prison officers do a challenging and vital job to help protect the public and we are committed to making sure we have enough staff to deliver safe regimes in our prisons.</p><p> </p><p>Detached duty is one of the sensible and proportionate measures we take to cover resourcing pressures and ensure we run safe and decent regimes in prisons as well as being able to respond appropriately to any operational issues that arise.</p><p> </p><p>In 2016 the former Secretary of State announced HMPPS would be recruiting an additional 2,500 prison officers by December 2018. Good progress is being made to hit this target, with 1,970 additional officers recruited by 31<sup>st</sup> December 2017. These new staff will reduce the need for Detached Duty.</p><p> </p><p>When there is a need to accommodate staff in hotels, we work hard to ensure the best possible value for money for the taxpayer and have controls in place to help keep costs to a minimum.</p><p> </p><p>Where possible, bookings are for specifically timed trains and always in standard class to help keep costs to a minimum.</p><p> </p><p>We are able to provide data on hotels and rail bookings made through Redfern Travel Ltd <strong>only</strong>.</p><p> </p><p>Please see table attached for data from 2013 – 2017.</p>