Bullingdon prison remains ‘chronically overcrowded’ despite repeated concerns raised by an independent board, ministers have been warned.

The Independent Monitoring Board said in its annual report for 2021/22 that of 521 cells designed to be occupied by a single prisoner ‘most’ were housing two inmates.

In a recommendation directed towards the prisons minister, the board said of overcrowding at the category C jail near Bicester: “Is it compatible with the fair and decent treatment of prisoners? Does the minister consider this to be acceptable?”

It came as, earlier this week, the Ministry of Justice wrote to police chiefs requesting the emergency use of 400 police station cells – blaming the barrister strike for an ‘acute and sudden’ jump in the prison population.  

The HMP Bullingdon independent monitoring board’s chairman Vicki Talbot said: “Staffing shortages and overcrowding affect prisoners and staff, and pose a risk to the stability of the prison.

“Resignations are up and the percentage of officers with limited experience has increased. These staffing issues negatively affect all aspects of prison operation including prisoner rehabilitation.”

By the end of June, there were 274 uniformed staff to guard a prison with an average population between July 2021 and June 2022 of 1,062, the board said.

Uniformed staff numbers were down by 47 on the previous year, with 76 officers leaving the jail over the year – of whom 63 resigned.

The board said it was the seventh year it had reported concerns about safety at the prison.

“It is possible that the chronic staff shortages will begin to have a greater impact on the safety and stability of the prison,” the report writers said.

Levels of violence ‘remained high’, with the board suggesting that although covid restrictions had meant less opportunity for prisoners to come into contact ‘long periods of inactivity and cell confinement’ had led to festering frustration.

More positively, the board found that a new body scanner was helping to limit the amount of drugs coming into prison – although the quantity of illegal drugs was still too high.

Healthcare provision was also said to be good and improving.

However, concerns were raised about covid restrictions hampering the prison’s efforts to run face-to-face educational courses or vocational training.

A Prison Service spokesperson told the BBC: "We are building 247 more places and recruiting more staff at HMP Bullingdon to improve conditions and in just one year our use of body scanners stopped over 500 illicit items from entering the prison, helping to reduce violence."