The Justice Secretary has authorised a trial of the use of tasers in prisons for the first time in an attempt to combat rising levels of violence.
From Monday, highly trained specialist officers from the Operational Response and Resilience Unit (ORRU) will be equipped with tasers in a trial of the use of the weapons in prisons.
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood attended the base in Kidlington last Thursday, when officers demonstrated how they would use Tasers on violent inmates in scenarios where there is a significant threat to safety – such as hostage situations or riots.
The tasers are capable of hitting targets up to 24 feet away with a force of 1,500 volts.
Only ORRU officers, who are deployed to handle incidents ordinary prison staff are not trained for, will participate in the trial.
But the Justice Secretary said she is considering authorising the use of Tasers more widely in prisons as rates of assaults on staff escalate.
Speaking to reporters at the ORRU training centre in Oxford last week, Mahmood said: “I inherited a situation with completely unacceptable levels of violence. I’m not willing to tolerate that. I’m determined to do everything I can to keep prison staff safe."
“From talking to the staff today — they’ve been asking for Tasers to be allowed to be used in our prison estate for years and years and years and I’m very pleased to have been able to green-light this trial."
“You’ll have seen from the scenarios that we looked at today, these are the most risky, dangerous scenarios that would be faced across our prison estate so it’s right that the trial starts here and looks at national capability and then it’s important that we learn lessons as well, because Tasers have been used for many years by the police."
“But a custodial setting, a prison estate, is different to usage in other scenarios so I think we’ve got to learn some lessons. We’ve got to think about effectiveness; these are the best-trained staff who can, I think, help us learn those lessons.
"Then, of course, I will consider what the trial shows but, from my perspective, this is very much the beginning.”
Mahmood said she would consider the results of the trial in the autumn before deciding whether to authorise a wider use of Tasers.
Officers have been requesting permission to use Tasers as levels of violence in prisons continues to rise.
There were a record 10,605 assaults on prison staff in 2024, 15 per cent higher than the previous year.
There were also 10,496 assaults on staff in the 12 months to September 2024 – a 23% increase from the previous 12 months and a new peak.
In April, three prison officers were been rushed to hospital after Hashem Abedi, the brother of the Manchester Arena bomber, "threw scalding oil and stabbed them", inflicting "life-threatening" injuries on the officers.
Soon after, a prison officer was allegedly attacked with boiling water by Southport triple killer Axel Rudakubana.
Officers in prisons are currently equipped with batons and Pava, an incapacitant spray similar to pepper spray.
The Taser trial will use the Taser 7 model, which generates 50,000 volts when fired, with the voltage dropping to 1,500 volts on contact with the skin to incapacitate the target.
The T7 model is also a two-shot weapon, enabling officers to shoot a second time in the event they miss their target the first time.
The Taser trial is part of a £40 million package announced last month to boost security across the prison estate, including £10 million specifically for anti-drone measures such as new netting and reinforced windows, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said on Monday.
"Officers will be subject to robust accountability measures, each deployment of a taser will be reviewed,” a spokesperson for the MoJ added.
The Prison Officers’ Association (POA) said it welcomed the move, but added the Government needed to address the roots of violence in jail.“
"The POA will always support any initiative that will help protect our members,” a spokesperson for the trade union said.
“However, as welcome as this initiative is we need to address the reasons why prison officers need Tasers in the first place.“
"Violence in our prisons is out of control and apathetic prison managers would rather put the prison regime before the safety of their staff.“
"We urgently need action to address overcrowding, understaffing, drugs and the other root causes of prison violence.”
