Chelmsford's MP has written to the Prisons Minister to express his concern over a scathing report on HMP & YOI Chelmsford and call for immediate action to address staffing issues.

In his letter to Sam Gyimah, Sir Simon Burns suggests prison officers who have left the service could be recruited on short-term contracts to ease pressures while new officers are being trained up.

He also asked for an update on what measures were being taken to tackle the prison's bullying problem.

Commenting on the letter, Sir Simon said: "The Independent Monitoring Board’s Annual Report on HMP/YOI Chelmsford does not make for happy reading.

"The report has highlighted a number of areas of concern and I believe the root of the problem is that Chelmsford needs more prison officers. The purpose of my letter to the minister is to press upon him the importance of more staff being employed at the prison and more action being taken to deal with the problem of bullying.

"I know the Government has made more money available to recruit an extra 2,000 prison officers in England, but I want assurances from the minister that Chelmsford Prison gets the extra staff that it so badly needs."