Gender equality has led to more female prison officers being beaten up by male inmates, the head of the prison service revealed yesterday.

Michael Spurr said women jail staff were now as likely to be attacked as their male colleague because of the disappearance of long-standing and traditional norms in prisons.

During his 35-career in the prison service, he said, there had been an understanding that male inmates would not hit female officers.

However, he told MPs on the Commons justice committee: "Over the last 10 years, that has changed - there's pure equality.