Prisons Policy/HMP Long Lartin

Debate between Victoria Prentis and Sam Gyimah

Thursday 12th October 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gyimah]

The staff were brilliant last night and are brilliant today. We also have an excellent governor, to whom I have conveyed my full support. Yes, we need to give them all the support they need, and I will put it on the record again that we owe them a huge debt of gratitude for managing on a day-to-day basis not just isolated incidences such as last night’s, but a very difficult and challenging situation in our prisons.

[Victoria Prentis (Banbury) (Con)]

I am grateful for the Minister’s confirmation that this was an isolated incident confined to one section of the prison and that the public were not at risk. Will he also confirm that the staffing level in that section of the prison was as normal?

[Mr Gyimah]

I can confirm not only that there was a full regime but that the number of prison officer staff on the wing was as normal.

Prison Officers Association: Withdrawal from Voluntary Tasks

Debate between Victoria Prentis and Sam Gyimah

Tuesday 28th February 2017 Commons Chamber

[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.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Victoria Prentis and Sam Gyimah

Tuesday 6th December 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gyimah]

Release on temporary licence has a huge role to play in helping prisoners to gain employment in the wider world. I have been speaking with Timpson’s, for example, which employs a lot of ex-offenders, and that is how they are trialled before release. We are looking at that to ensure that the guidance that governors receive allows them to do more with release on temporary licence, specifically in relation to employment opportunities.

[Victoria Prentis (Banbury) (Con)]

5. What plans the Government have to increase the autonomy of prison governors to enable them to make reforms.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Victoria Prentis and Sam Gyimah

Monday 20th July 2015 Commons Chamber

[Victoria Prentis (Banbury) (Con)]

17. What progress her Department is making on providing fairer funding for schools.

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

It is deeply unfair that we have a schools funding formula based on historic allocation rather than on actual need of schools and pupils. That is why the manifesto confirmed extra financial support for the least well-funded authorities for 2015-16, protected the schools budget in real terms and committed to making the system fairer. I can confirm that we will be putting proposals before the House for funding reform in due course.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Gyimah]

I thank my hon. Friend for his question. I know he has a record of successful campaigning for schools funding. He is right to mention the pupil premium, which is designed to remove the barriers to learning faced by children from disadvantaged backgrounds. The pupil premium will provide almost £5 million in additional funding for more than 4,000 disadvantaged pupils—that is all disadvantaged children, not just white children—in Blackpool North and Cleveleys, and will help them to fulfil their potential.

[Victoria Prentis]

Following on from the previous question, 3,000 disadvantaged children in my Banbury constituency also benefit from the pupil premium. What other measures has the Minister thought about to promote targeted spending, to help to increase fairness in education?

[Mr Gyimah]

I welcome my hon. Friend to her place. She may know that her father, Lord Boswell, was extremely generous in his support to me in my early political career— indeed, he helped me to meet my wife—[Interruption.] Too much information. My hon. Friend rightly mentions targeted support. Some £3.5 million has been allocated to Banbury schools specifically to help to narrow the education gap.