Shabana Mahmood’s plans to reduce migration hit a setback yesterday. It emerged that around 2,500 foreign national prison officers who no longer qualified to remain in the UK will have their visas extended. The officers, most of whom are from West Africa, were going to have to leave their jobs because the new skilled worker scheme requires that people earn £41,700 a year, above the level which most early-career prison officers are paid. Just six weeks ago it seemed that the Home Secretary wouldn’t budge, but it seems that concerted lobbying by Justice Secretary David Lammy and prisons minister Lord Timpson, along with an intervention from the Prime Minister, has caused the rethink.

According to the Ministry of Justice they ‘have given a specific, time-limited exemption to visa rules for prison officers who are already in the country’, because it was necessary to ‘ensure jails can continue to run safely’. There is some truth to this. The 2,500 foreign prison officers represent 11 per cent of all frontline prison staff, but they are not evenly distributed. Bullingdon, Elmlea, Guys Marsh, Liverpool and Swaleside all have very high levels of foreign officers. The last jail in that list is of particular concern.

The prison service is in permanent crisis

Earlier this week Charlie Taylor, Chief Inspector of Prisons, issued an urgent notification for........

© The Spectator