Civil Servants tell Prison Officers to swap the term convict for, person with lived experience

Prison officers have been instructed not to call criminals "convicts", as some may find the term offensive.

Warders have also been told by Civil Servants that they are not to use the phrase "ex-con" for former prisoners, instead referring to them as "persons with lived experience" or "prison leavers".

The reason the guidance has been issued, is that the word convict is inaccurate for a percentage of prisoners who are being held on remand - as they have not yet been convicted. Currently, around 17 per cent of the 84,800 prisoners in England and Wales are on remand.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said that the move was part of efforts to curb inappropriate deviations from its guidelines.

Speaking to a well known tabloid, the national chairman of the Prison Officers' Association (POA) trade union said he was instructed to drop the use of the words in an official letter from the Ministry of Justice. He said, "I received a letter saying some people found the word 'convict' offensive and that we should not use that term," Mark Fairhurst said.

He further added, "The letter from the employee relations department of HM Prison and Probation Service said the terms 'prisoner' and 'offender' should be used instead.... When I talk to prisoners they call themselves 'cons'. So what's the problem?"

A spokesman for the Prison Service said, "We have set clear and robust guidance on language to be used by staff. However 'convict' is inaccurate, given a large proportion of prisoners are on remand ahead of trial and have therefore not been convicted."