Asked by: John McDonnell (Independent - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when she plans to respond to the requests on insourcing made by trade unions in their meeting with her on 18 July 2024.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Government is committed to ensuring professional Facility Management services across its prison estate. Our approach to securing delivery will be set out later this year.
Ministry of Justice officials regularly engage with Trade Union officials on the Lord Chancellor’s behalf regarding the future of Gov Facility Services Limited and the delivery of facilities management services across the Prison and Probations estate.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Independent - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment she has made of the potential merits of insourcing the work currently undertaken by Government Facilities Services Limited.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Government is committed to ensuring professional Facility Management services across its prison estate. Our approach to securing delivery will be set out later this year.
Ministry of Justice officials regularly engage with Trade Union officials on the Lord Chancellor’s behalf regarding the future of Gov Facility Services Limited and the delivery of facilities management services across the Prison and Probations estate.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Independent - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what data her Department holds on Government Facilities Services policy on recognition of trade unions since its formation.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Department does not hold this data. Gov Facility Services Limited (GFSL) staff are subject to the Company’s own terms and conditions, and GFSL does not recognise any trade union under a formal agreement. Further information on GFSL’s staff policies can be found within its Annual Report and Accounts, published annually on gov.uk.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Independent - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether Gov Facilities Services Limited is subject to her Department’s public sector equality duty.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Gov Facility Services Limited (GFSL) is not listed as a public authority in Schedule 19 of the Equality Act 2010, however as it is publicly funded, public sector equality duties apply. Further information on how GFSL address the requirements set out in the Equality Act 2010 can be found within GFSL’s Annual Report and Accounts, published annually on gov.uk.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Independent - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether her Department is responsible for responding to Freedom of Information Act requests relating to Gov Facility Services Limited.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Gov Facility Services Limited (GFSL) is responsible for responding to Freedom of Information Act requests. Further information on timeliness of response to Freedom of Information requests can be found within GFSL’s Annual Report and Accounts, published annually on gov.uk.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Independent - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners serving sentences of Imprisonment for Public Protection in category A prisons are categorized as C category prisoners.
Answered by Edward Argar - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
There are 108 prisoners serving sentences of Imprisonment for Public Protection are in Category A prisons.
There are * prisoners serving sentences of Imprisonment for Public Protection in Category A prisons which are categorised as C category prisoners. (*) has been used to suppress values of one or two. This is to prevent the disclosure of individual information.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Independent - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners serving sentences of Imprisonment for Public Protection are in category A prisons.
Answered by Edward Argar - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
There are 108 prisoners serving sentences of Imprisonment for Public Protection are in Category A prisons.
There are * prisoners serving sentences of Imprisonment for Public Protection in Category A prisons which are categorised as C category prisoners. (*) has been used to suppress values of one or two. This is to prevent the disclosure of individual information.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Independent - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 17 July 2023 to Question 193050 on Prisons: Crimes of Violence, what weighting is given to the rate of (a) prisoner-on-prisoner assaults and (b) assaults on staff relative to other KPIs when assigning annual prison performance ratings.
Answered by Edward Argar - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
For the performance year 2022/23, we will publish the Annual Prisons Performance Ratings on 27 July 2023. This publication will provide the weightings given to a wide range of KPIs used by the framework that enables us to monitor the performance of the prison system, including prisoner on prisoner assaults and assaults on staff. The weightings will be published in the publication guidance documentation.
Performance targets were not set for individual prisons for 2021-22 because prisons were still recovering from the pandemic, however, HMPPS still monitored performance in order to drive continuous improvement.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Independent - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 17 July 2023 to Question 193050 on Prisons: Crimes of Violence, if he will provide the 2021-22 Prisons Performance Framework target levels for each prison for the KPIs of (a) prisoner-on-prisoner assaults and (b) assaults on staff.
Answered by Edward Argar - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
For the performance year 2022/23, we will publish the Annual Prisons Performance Ratings on 27 July 2023. This publication will provide the weightings given to a wide range of KPIs used by the framework that enables us to monitor the performance of the prison system, including prisoner on prisoner assaults and assaults on staff. The weightings will be published in the publication guidance documentation.
Performance targets were not set for individual prisons for 2021-22 because prisons were still recovering from the pandemic, however, HMPPS still monitored performance in order to drive continuous improvement.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Independent - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the oral contribution of the Minister of State on 4 July 2023, Official Report, Col. 760, if he will list the key performance indicators used to measure violence in prisons; and whether his Department plans to introduce any sanctions for prison operators failing to meet these targets.
Answered by Damian Hinds
Prison governors and senior leaders use a variety of measures to understand violence within prisons. The 2021/2022 Prisons Performance Framework (PPT) rated the performance of all public and private sector prisons in England and Wales. It contains two violence Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) which prisons are assessed against. These are:
These are available on gov.uk at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/prison-performance-ratings-2021-to-2022. The prison performance ratings for 2022/2023 will be published on 27 July 2023.
HMPPS monitors performance against these KPIs on an ongoing basis and takes action if this is deemed necessary.
Private prison contracts are managed by operational contract managers who assure delivery against performance and contract measures.