Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when he plans to publish the Prison Reform Bill.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
The Bill was announced as part of legislative programme for this session in the Queen's speech. Further details on the timing of the Bill will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what reforms have been put in place in the six early adopter reform prisons to tackle (a) self-harm, (b) prisoner on prisoner violence, (c) assaults on staff and (d) use of new psychoactive substances; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
I refer the honourable member to the answer given to PQ 38292 on 02 June 2016.
Reform prisons have unprecedented freedom over their regime and the rehabilitative services they provide, allowing their governors to innovate and run their prison as they see fit. We have put the tools to drive change in the hands of those at the frontline who know best what works. Governors are currently developing reform plans for their prisons. They are expected to tackle the most pressing challenges in their prisons which are likely to include many of these issues.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will publish the criteria used to select the six early adopter reform prisons.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
I refer the honourable member to the answer given to PQ 38292 on 02 June 2016.
Reform prisons have unprecedented freedom over their regime and the rehabilitative services they provide, allowing their governors to innovate and run their prison as they see fit. We have put the tools to drive change in the hands of those at the frontline who know best what works. Governors are currently developing reform plans for their prisons. They are expected to tackle the most pressing challenges in their prisons which are likely to include many of these issues.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the cost was of (a) overtime payments, (b) required hours allowance, (c) Payment Plus, (d) constant watch, (e) bedwatch, (f) tornado, (g) dirty protest, (h) unsocial hours working payments and (i) additional committed hours within NOMS in each of the last five years.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
The table below shows total cost in respect of overtime payments; payment plus; bedwatch; and tornado for financial years 2010-11 to 2014-15. The overtime payments includes all NOMS staff.
Financial Years | |||||
2010-11 | 2011-12 | 2012-13 | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | |
Payments made to NOMS staff | £m | £m | £m | £m | £m |
Overtime | 10.5 | 9.4 | 9.2 | 8.2 | 11.1 |
Bedwatches | 15.2 | 14.7 | 14.9 | 15.3 | 14.2 |
Tornado | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 0.5 |
Payment Plus | 33.9 | 31.3 | 30.2 | 30.3 | 38.1 |
To note within the table: | |||||
1. The figures have been drawn fromour central accounting system, andalthough care is taken when processing and analysingreturns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system | |||||
Information in respect of : required hours allowance; constant watch; dirty protest; unsocial hours working payments; and, additional committed hours is not held separately in the National Offender Management Service’s central accounting system.
The recent recruitment campaign has led to the recruitment of 2,230 new prison officers in the 12 months ending 30 June 2015. This should in turn result in less reliance on Payment Plus.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the cost of travel and subsistance has been to the National Offender Management Service for the operation of the nationally co-ordinated detached duty scheme since its introduction.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
The National Offender Management Service cannot disaggregate the cost of travel and subsistence claimed by staff on the nationally co-ordinated detached duty scheme from other staff travel and subsistence expenses recorded on the central accounting system without incurring disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison community impact assessment reports have been submitted by each prison establishment since the introduction of the new joint national protocol between NOMS, the Crown Prosecution Service and the National Police Chiefs Council.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
The joint national protocol on the appropriate handling of crimes in prison was published in February. I am committed to making the protocol work to ensure that serious crimes in prison are not ignored and are dealt with fully by the Criminal Justice System. The protocol provides that when a crime committed in prison is referred to the police, the prison is offered the opportunity to provide a Prison Community Impact Statement, the purpose of which is to provide relevant and useful information on behalf of the prison about the impact the offence has had on the establishment.
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Information about the number of Prison Community Impact Statements which have been submitted since publication of the protocol is not held centrally and could only be collected at disproportionate cost.
Although this information cannot be provided at the present time senior officials from NOMS, the Crown Prosecution Service and the police are looking at monitoring progress on the implementation of the protocol and setting priorities for future work and monitoring arrangements will enable data of this type to be provided in due course.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison officers (a) were recruited to and (b) left the Prison Service in each month since January 2014.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
Information on the number of band 3 to 5 prison officers that were recruited to the Prison Service in each month since January 2014 is shown in the table below. The recruitment figures include existing National Offender Management Service staff of other grades who become officers during the period.
Table: Prison Officer joiners and leavers to the Prison Service by month, January 2014 to March 2015
| Month | Joiners (including internal candidates) | Leavers |
2014 | Jan | 40 | 300 |
| Feb | 30 | 110 |
| Mar | 30 | 140 |
| Jun | 30 | 90 |
| May | 40 | 100 |
| Jun | 60 | 120 |
| Jul | 40 | 110 |
| Aug | 100 | 110 |
| Sep | 230 | 140 |
| Oct | 220 | 120 |
| Nov | 110 | 140 |
| Dec | 10 | 120 |
2015 | Jan | 360 | 120 |
| Feb | 330 | 100 |
| Mar | 170 | 110 |
Total |
| 1810 | 1910 |
All figures are rounded to the nearest 10, with numbers ending in 5 rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to prevent systematic bias. As with all HR databases, extracts are taken at a fixed point in time, to ensure consistency of reporting. The database itself is dynamic however, and where updates to the database are made subsequent to the taking of the extract, these updates will not be reflected in figures produced by the extract. For this reason, HR data are unlikely to be precisely accurate, and to present unrounded figures would be to overstate the accuracy of the figures. Rounding to 10 accurately depicts the level of certainty that is held with these figures.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what projection he has made of the financial savings NOMS will make in (a) 2015-16 and (b) each of the next three years.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
Between 2011/12 and 2014/15 NOMS has delivered savings of £898m.
The NOMS saving target for 2015/16 is £91m.
The financial savings for the next three years will be determined by the Spending Review (SR15) led by HM Treasury.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many times a governor has granted sick absence excusal to staff in each of the last five years.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
Information on the number of Sick Excusals is provides in the table below:
Table: Number of Sick Excusals provided in Public Sector Prisons in England and Wales, 2009/10 - 2013/14
Year | Number of Sick Excusals |
2009/10 | 1,248 |
2010/11 | 2,039 |
2011/12 | 1,824 |
2012/13 | 1,619 |
2013/14 | 1,918 |
Note: Figures have been compiled on the basis of start of sickness absence.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what comparative information his Department holds on pay rates of the Information Commissioner's Office and other independent regulators and ombudsmen with similar functions for staff at the same grade.
Answered by Simon Hughes
The Ministry of Justice does not hold a comparative list on pay rates at the Information Commissioner’s Office and other similar bodies, and the information could only be provided at disproportionate cost. Information on salaries of senior staff in public bodies is published by the Cabinet Office and can be found on the GOV.UK website, or within relevant annual reports of individual bodies.