Isle of Man prison staffing, inmates and issues

Summary

The Department of Home Affairs responded to a Freedom of Information request regarding Isle of Man prison staffing levels and turnover from 2020 to May 2025, providing detailed monthly headcount and churn data while withholding information on bullying complaints, contracted hours, and length of service.

Key Facts

• The response covers prison staff data from January 2020 through May 2025.
• Casual staff with 0 Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) hours were excluded from all headcount figures.
• The request was split into four parts, with this response constituting Part 1 of 4.
• Data includes monthly breakdowns of male and female staff headcounts and the number of starters and leavers.
• Information regarding bullying complaints, contracted hours, and length of service per leaver was not held or provided in this part.

Data Disclosed

• 2020-01-01
• 2025-05-31
• 124
• 11
• 16
• 21
• 12
• 5
• 2
• 4575985
• 2025-04-09
• 2025-06-27
• 2025-06-10

Exemptions Cited

• Information not held
• Information cannot be found after taking reasonable steps

Original Request

(1) Staffing levels since 2020: Per year and within that, per month - number of staff in post by male and female and please state what the staffing level should be by male and female (2) Staffing - churn since 2020: Please state the number of leavers and starters by year and within each year, by month. Please state the length of service per leaver. (3) Staffing - bullying: Please provide the number of complaints of bullying against management by year and by month since 2020 (4) Staffing - hours: Please state what the hours are that staff are contracted to work, and please state the number of times staff have been asked to work beyond those hours (by year and by month)'

Data Tables (5)

Full Response Text

1. Staffing Levels – Headcount of staff within the Prison as at the end of each month, split by Male/Female. Excluding staff with 0 Hours.

Year/Month Female Headcount (excl. Casual) Male Headcount (excl. Casual) Total Headcount (excl. Casual) 2020 Jan 31 90 121 Feb 31 90 121 Mar 31 89 120 Apr 30 89 119 May 29 89 118 Jun 28 88 116 Jul 28 87 115 Aug 28 87 115 Sep 27 85 112 Oct 27 85 112 Nov 27 86 113 Dec 27 84 111 2021 Jan 27 82 109 Feb 27 81 108 Mar 27 80 107 Apr 27 78 105 May 26 77 103 Jun 25 76 101 Jul 28 78 106 Aug 28 78 106 Sep 28 76 104 Oct 29 76 105 Nov 29 75 104 Dec 29 79 108 2022 Jan 29 80 109 Feb 29 80 109 Mar 29 77 106 Apr 29 77 106 May 29 77 106 Jun 31 78 109 Jul 30 78 108 Aug 30 78 108 Sep 30 77 107 Oct 29 76 105 Nov 29 76 105 Dec 29 76 105 2023 Jan 33 81 114 Feb 31 81 112 Mar 30 80 110 Apr 29 80 109 May 30 81 111 Jun 29 81 110 Jul 28 81 109 Aug 27 80 107 Sep 27 81 108 Oct 31 82 113 Nov 30 82 112 Dec 28 82 110 2024 Jan 28 81 109 Feb 29 81 110 Mar 30 86 116 Apr 30 85 115 May 31 84 115 Jun 33 84 117 Jul 33 82 115 Aug 33 87 120 Sep 31 87 118 Oct 31 90 121 Nov 32 87 119 Dec 32 87 119 2025 Jan 33 88 121 Feb 35 89 124 Mar 33 89 122 Apr 33 89 122 May 32 88 120

Data Notes: Headcount is a count of unique personal reference numbers. Casual staff (staff with 0 FTE) have been excluded. Data for the year 2020 was extracted from PiP on 13/06/2025. Data for the years 2021-2025 was extracted from PiP at the end of each respective month.

1. Staffing Churn – Headcount of staff starting or leaving the Prison within each month and year. Excluding staff with 0 hours.

Year/Month Headcount of Starters Headcount of Leavers 2020 1 11 Jan 0 0 Feb 0 1 Mar 0 1 Apr 0 0 May 0 1 Jun 0 2 Jul 0 1 Aug 0 0 Sep 0 3 Oct 0 0 Nov 1 0 Dec 0 2 2021 13 16 Jan 0 2 Feb 0 1 Mar 0 2 Apr 0 1 May 0 2 Jun 0 2 Jul 6 1 Aug 0 0 Sep 0 3 Oct 2 0 Nov 0 2 Dec 5 0 2022 8 11 Jan 1 0 Feb 0 2 Mar 1 2 Apr 0 1 May 0 0 Jun 5 1 Jul 1 2 Aug 0 0 Sep 0 2 Oct 0 1 Nov 0 0 Dec 0 0 2023 19 14 Jan 8 0 Feb 0 1 Mar 0 1 Apr 1 0 May 0 0 Jun 0 1 Jul 1 4 Aug 1 1 Sep 3 2 Oct 5 2 Nov 0 0 Dec 0 2 2024 21 12 Jan 0 1 Feb 2 1 Mar 6 2 Apr 1 1 May 1 0 Jun 2 1 Jul 0 1 Aug 5 0 Sep 0 2 Oct 3 1 Nov 1 2 Dec 0 0 2025 5 2 Jan 2 0 Feb 3 0 Mar 0 2 Apr 0 0 May 0 2

Data Notes: Headcount is a count of unique personal reference numbers. Casual staff (staff with 0 FTE) have been excluded. Data for all years was extracted from PiP at the end of May 2025. Starters and leavers includes staff who left/joined the organisation completely and staff who may have transferred in/out of the Prison from/to the Probation division, other DHA divisions or other departments in IOMG. Transfers between positions within the Prison are not included.

Freedom of Information Coordinator DHA Headquarters Tromode Road, Douglas, Isle of Man, IM2 5AP

Telephone: (01624) 687017 Web address: www.gov.im/dha
Email: DPO-DHA@dha.gov.im

Our ref: 4575985 27 June 2025

Dear ###

We write further to your request, received 9 April 2025, which originally comprised 11 questions, and was clarified as follows:

"(1) Staffing levels since 2020: Per year and within that, per month - number of staff in post by male and female and please state what the staffing level should be by male and female

(2) Staffing - churn since 2020: Please state the number of leavers and starters by year and within each year, by month. Please state the length of service per leaver.

(3) Staffing - bullying: Please provide the number of complaints of bullying against management by year and by month since 2020

(4) Staffing - hours: Please state what the hours are that staff are contracted to work, and please state the number of times staff have been asked to work beyond those hours (by year and by month)'"

On the basis that your original request was legitimate but broad in scope, we agreed on 10 June 2025 that we would separate it into four separate parts, raising a new request for each part when the previous had been responded to, consecutively, until the response was issued in full. For clarity, this is Part 1 of 4 of your initial query.
Our response to Part 1 of your request is as follows:
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the public authority does not hold or cannot, after taking reasonable steps to do so, find some of the information that you have requested. The reason for this is detailed in each of the points below.
(1) Staffing Levels since 2020 Please see attached PDF (“20250626 Prison Staff Data”) containing the information requested.

(2) Staffing Churn since 2020 Please see attached PDF (“20250626 Prison Staff Data”) containing the information requested.
(3) Staff Bullying Complaints since 2020 This portion of your request was referred to the Prison Administration Team and the Office of Human Resources (“OHR”), after undertaking searches for the information they were not able to find the information requested.
To provide advice and assistance, OHR confirmed that since 2020 there have been two instances of “Fairness at Work” raised at the Prison. Further distinguishing factors of these instances have been excluded to retain confidence of the individuals concerned.
(4) Staff Contracted Hours & Overtime (since 2020) This portion was also referred to the Prison Administration Team and the Office of Human Resources (“OHR”), after undertaking searches for the information they were not able to find some of the information requested.
To provide advice and assistance, a recent application for a Prison Officer was posted to JobTrain, the Isle of Man Government’s hiring portal. On page 4 of this application pack, the contracted hours of a Prison Officer are confirmed as 39 hours per week.
https://www.jobtrain.co.uk/Iomgovjobs/Job/GetJobAdvertDocument?docid=164663&G UID=88b9246acf294694b17399a438d5cc81&jobid=13892 Regarding your query concerning the “number of times staff have been asked to work beyond those hours”; unfortunately we are unable to supply this information as it is not collated in a central format, and would require us to review each individual staff member’s record to confirm.

Please quote the reference number 4575985 in any future communications.

Your right to request a review

If you are unhappy with this response to your freedom of information request, you may ask us to carry out an internal review of the response, by completing a complaint form and submitting it electronically or by delivery/post.

An electronic version of our complaint form can be found by going to our website at https://services.gov.im/freedom-of-information/Review . If you would like a paper version of our complaint form to be sent to you by post, please contact me and I will be happy to arrange for this. Your review request should explain why you are dissatisfied with this response, and should be made as soon as practicable. We will respond as soon as the review has been concluded.

If you are not satisfied with the result of the review, you then have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner for a decision on;

1. Whether we have responded to your request for information in accordance with Part 2 of the Freedom of Information Act 2015; or
2. Whether we are justified in refusing to give you the information requested.
   In response to an application for review, the Information Commissioner may, at any time, attempt to resolve a matter by negotiation, conciliation, mediation or another form of alternative dispute resolution and will have regard to any outcome of this in making any subsequent decision. More detailed information on your right to a review can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website at www.inforights.im. Should you have any queries concerning this letter, please do not hesitate to contact me. Further information about freedom of information requests can be found at www.gov.im/foi.

I will now close your request as of this date.