AS MANY as five HMP Bedford staff members were hospitalised at the weekend as further violence erupted at the crisis-hit jail, the Prison Officers’ Association (POA) said today.

The union said that the warders needed hospital treatment after a major disturbance at Bedford before “riot squads with the support of dog sections and local staff … regained control.”

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has denied that a riot squad was deployed, saying that there was no threat to the wider public and that four members of staff had been hospitalised.

POA national chair Mark Fairhurst said he was “appalled at the management decisions that caused POA members to end up in hospital with serious injuries after being assaulted.” He added that “the further violence at the weekend proved the POA membership are right to protest.”

Talks between the POA and HM Prison & Probation Service began yesterday following a compromise between the union and the MoJ after the ministry threatened legal action over a mass walkout of staff at prisons across the country on Friday that was triggered by a scathing report into conditions at HMP Bedford.

In a joint statement, Mr Fairhurst and POA general secretary Steve Gillan said: “The POA are appalled that members’ concerns and rights to work in a violence-free workplace have once again been ignored.”

In the last week 15 staff members in England and Wales were attacked in unprovoked assaults, according to the POA. Five assaults involved “potting” — the throwing of buckets filled with human waste. A female prison officer was sexually assaulted.

There were also 25 prisoner-on-prisoner assaults, 15 requiring hospital treatment, as well as eight reported deaths in custody.

Prisons minister Rory Stewart said that the government is doubling sentences this week for those who assault prison staff.