Prison Officers Association: Withdrawal from Voluntary Tasks Debate

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Department: Ministry of Justice

Roberta Blackman-Woods

Main Page: Roberta Blackman-Woods (Labour - City of Durham)

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Point of Order

Prison Officers Association: Withdrawal from Voluntary Tasks

Roberta Blackman-Woods Excerpts

Personal Independence Payments
Tuesday 28th February 2017

(7 years, 9 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Sam Gyimah Portrait Mr Gyimah
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I am sure that our prison officers will always do their duty if there is disorder in prisons, even at this difficult time. We are obviously urging the POA to withdraw its bulletin, but we also make sure that we have contingency plans for times like this.

Roberta Blackman-Woods Portrait Dr Roberta Blackman-Woods (City of Durham) (Lab)
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The Minister does not need me to tell him that staff morale in our prisons is extremely low, which is not helped by very low staff numbers. In my constituency since 2010, the numbers at Frankland have gone down by 32%, at Durham by 48% and at Low Newton by 17%. When does the Minister think that he will be in a position to produce a pay offer that recognises the difficult and dangerous job that prison officers do?

Sam Gyimah Portrait Mr Gyimah
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We are already doing that; we are recognising that difficulty. As I have said, pay packets will go up to about £30,000 as a result of the measures we have introduced in the past week. The independent pay review body will report in April, after which we will take further action.

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