Oral Answers to Questions

Jim Cunningham Excerpts

Tuesday 7th March 2017 Commons Chamber

[Sir Oliver Heald]

We are talking against a background where improvements are being made for victims all the time. I accept that more needs to be done for children, and the hon. Gentleman makes an important point. We are looking to produce further measures for victims in due course, and I will make sure that that is considered.

[Mr Jim Cunningham (Coventry South) (Lab)]

11. Which organisations she consulted on the prison service pay award announced by her Department on 19 February 2017.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Mr Sam Gyimah)]

We have announced that, in prisons where recruitment and retention are most difficult, we will offer a combination of higher starting pay and an additional allowance of up to £5,000 a year, taking the salary of officers in those jails to up to £30,000. The relevant trade unions were advised in advance.

[Mr Cunningham]

Good management suggests that we lift up the lower paid in the Prison Service, which will help with recruitment and, more importantly, lift morale.

[Mr Gyimah]

The hon. Gentleman makes an important point. We want to make sure that our hard-working prison officers are well rewarded. Our announcement on 19 February, to which he refers, was specifically designed to tackle jails where it is very hard to recruit because of the high cost of living in their particular market. This year’s pay award for all prison staff is a matter for the independent pay review body, to which we will submit evidence shortly.