The Prison Service will investigate whether frontline staff should be given protective body armour after an attack on officers by Manchester bomb plotter Hashem Abedi, the justice secretary has said.
The guards were attacked with hot oil and homemade weapons at HMP Frankland in County Durham on Saturday. Four prison officers were injured, with three sustaining serious injuries and taken to hospital, Counter Terrorism Policing North East said. One officer remains in hospital.
The Ministry of Justice has pledged to carry out a review after the incident, with union leaders calling for officers to be given stab vests and protective equipment.
It has also suspended access to kitchens in separation units in prisons, where the attack is believed to have taken place in Frankland.
The justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, said: “I share the country’s shock and anger at the attack on our prison officers at HMP Frankland last weekend.
“It is clear there are further questions to answer, and more that must be done.
“For that reason, we are carrying out an independent review into these events.
“This will look into how this was able to happen, and what we must do to better protect our prison officers in the future.
“This review will look specifically at this attack, but also more widely at how separation centres are run.”
The lord chancellor added: “The Prison Service will also conduct a snap review into whether protective body armour should be made available to frontline staff.”
The review is expected to report back its findings in the next few months.
Mahmood also said there will be an audit on carrying out 230 recommendations from 19 reviews looking at extremism in prisons.
In 2020, Abedi was jailed for at least 55 years for the murders of 22 people. He helped his older sibling Salman plan the bombing on 22 May 2017 in Manchester.
