£550k a week spent on jail compo claims

Call to 'get a grip' on prison payouts

-  MATTHEW DAVIES and NICOLA SMALL

TAXPAYERS are footing a bill of nearly £550,000 every week to deal with a mountain of prison compensation claims.

The public purse has been hit for £142.8million to settle thousands of cases brought by inmates, staff and visitors in the past five years.

And our figures, revealed under the Freedom of Information Act, show £82.3m went to criminals or people being held on remand.

More than half of that - £48.6million - was used to settle claims from inmates injured in slips and falls.