HMP Aylesbury given 'lowest possible rating' for performance

Aylesbury Prison was one of sixteen prisons (14%) given the lowest score in the ratings, which are published annually by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).

This means the Ministry of Justice has 'serious concerns' about the prison, and the safety of the staff.

All of the 16 prisons or young offender institutions to be given the lowest performance in 2018-19 are publicly-run, although HMP Birmingham was operated by private company G4S during some of the period.

This year's results marked the highest proportion of prisons rated as '[performance of serious concern' since ratings began.

This includes: Aylesbury, Bedford, Birmingham, Bristol, Chelmsford, Feltham, Liverpool, Mount, Nottingham, Onley, Pentonville, Portland, Rochester, Wandsworth, Winchester and Wormwood Scrubs.

All prisons rated as having performance of serious concern were either Male Category C, Male Local, or Male Closed Young Offender Institution (YOI) prisons. Of the 16 prisons rated as having performance of serious concern, ten were Male Local prisons.

The report revealed that self-harm incidents have reached their highest ever numbers, with 57,968 self harm incidents recorded to the end of March 2019.

This marks a whopping 24% increase.

The Ministry of Justice report revealed 34,425 assaults in prisons during the same period.

This marks an increase of 11% from the previous year.

It also revealed 10,311 reported attacks on staff - the highest since comparable records began.

Of those, 1,002 assaults were classed as "serious - an increase of 12% from 2017-18.