Prison Officers Association: Withdrawal from Voluntary Tasks Debate
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Victoria Prentis
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Prison Officers Association: Withdrawal from Voluntary Tasks
Victoria Prentis Excerpts(7 years, 9 months ago)
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Mr Gyimah
As I have said, our prison officers do an incredibly difficult job. I visit prisons almost every week and I know how hard the officers work. The POA has decided to make a stand on pay, as we have seen in today’s bulletin. I urge it to withdraw its bulletin because it will not do anything to improve safety in our prisons.
Victoria Prentis (Banbury) (Con)
What steps has the Minister taken in the past few months to improve the career prospects of prison officers?
Mr Gyimah
In addition to the workforce strategy that we will publish later this year, which will focus on the professionalisation of the workforce, last week we announced a progressive promotion opportunity that will allow band 3 officers to do roles relating to safer custody, mentoring and hostage negotiation, and to get a pay rise. That is a huge step not just in professionalising the workforce and allowing people to operate in more senior roles, but in improving the pay packets of our hard-working prison officers.