The UK Ministry of Justice is facing intense criticism for a proposed £115,000 expenditure on professional actors. The funds are intended to facilitate role-play training for Family Liaison Officers (FLOs) tasked with delivering sensitive news to grieving relatives.
The £115,000 investment in simulated grief
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has advertised a contract to hire professional actors for a series of two-day training sessions.. According to the report, this £115,000 investment is intended to span a five-year period.. These actors will be tasked with portraying the relatives of deceased inmates, helping Family Liaison Officers (FLOs) practice the difficult task of announcing a prisoner's death or a terminal illness diagnosis.
The training, which is delivered by Prison Learning Design and Delivery (PLD&D) within HMPPS, requires actors to work without a specific script. Instead, the Ministry of Justice wrote in its tender that actors are expected to respond and adapt to the interaction as it develops, ensuring the scenarios remain realistic for the officers. The actors will provide feedback to the FLOs, detailing how the conversation made them feel from the perspective of the next of kin.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith's "bonkers" critique
Tory MP Sir Iain Duncan Smith has publicly condemned the initiative, describing the use of actors for such purposes as "bonkers." He argued that the expenditure is a poor use of public funds that could be better directed toward infrastructure, such as building temporary prisons to accommodate the growing inmate population. Duncan Smith suggested that senior prison officers, who already operate within the restricted prison environment, would be more effective at leading these training exercises.
The MP further characterized the scheme as a "ridiculous little distraction" from the government's broader failure to manage the current prison crisis. He argued that the focus should remain on solving the overcrowding issue rather than funding specialized simulation acting.
Early releases and the PC Andrew Harper killers
This training expenditure comes at a time when the Ministry of Justice is under significant pressure regarding its early release policies. As reported, the government is implementing an early release scheme to prevent the entire prison system from collapsing due to overcrowding. This policy has become a flashpoint for controversy, particularly as it includes the release of individuals such as two of the killers of PC Andrew Harper.
Critics argue that the focus on soft-skill training for officers is misplaced while dangerous criminals are being released onto the streets to manage capacity issues. While ministers argue the early release initiative is a necessity to avoid systemic collapse , the timing of the actor contract has fueled accusations of misplaced priorities.
The missing details in the MoJ's training tender
Several details regarding the program's efficacy and implementation remain unverified in the current tender. The source does not specify how many Family Liaison Officers (FLOs) will be trained through these sessions or how the feedback provided by actors will be measured against actual performance. Additionally, it is unclear how the MoJ will ensure that the actors' emotional portrayals remain consistent with the diverse religious and cultural backgrounds required in the briefs.
The report also fails to address whether the cost of these simulations could be more efficiently managed using internal prison staff, or if the five-year cost is truly comparable to the annual salaries of three prison officers as critics suggest. A Prison and Probation Service spokesperson has noted that comparing the contract value to annual salaries is misleading, but the specific scale of the training's impact remains unknown.
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