From collapsing schools to insecure prisons, the British public isn’t getting the services it deserves

Editorial: Even with times as hard as this, we should not have to put up with, say, four out of 10 prison officers not attending their scheduled shifts

The situation at Wandsworth speaks to a wider malaise in society (Getty Images)

On the day that Daniel Khalife escaped from HMP Wandsworth, there were 125 prison officers on shift, but some 80 of their colleagues did not turn up for duty. This stunning fact has only come to light through the diligent efforts of the constituency MP, Rosena Allin-Khan, to extract it from the Ministry of Justice.

As Ms Allin-Khan puts it, it “beggars belief that he was even allowed to work in the kitchen. The government need to explain themselves”. Quite. The MP also claims that one day last December only eight officers were around to oversee the 1,500 or so inmates in the prison, though the authorities haven’t confirmed this.