PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
(8 September 2026)

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison officers working in Welsh prisons declared as Welsh-speaking using the Welsh language question introduced to Ministry of Justice systems in 2023, in (a) March, (b) June, (c) September and (d) December 2025, by prison in Wales.

Asked by:
Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru)

The below table shows the headcount of Band 3-5 officers who have reported that they are Welsh speakers on the Department’s HR database:

Prison	31/03/2025	30/06/2025	30/09/2025	31/12/2025
Berwyn	15	14	16	16
Cardiff	7	8	8	8
Swansea	12	12	13	14
Usk/Prescoed	~	~	~	3

~ denotes suppressed values of 2 or fewer. Low numbers are suppressed to prevent disclosure in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018.

Whether staff can speak Welsh is a self-reported variable, with the vast majority of staff not reporting this information, so the true numbers of Welsh speakers are likely to be higher.

Answered by:
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