Asked by Lord Beecham To ask Her Majesty’s Government what
steps they are taking to ensure the recruitment and retention of
prison staff in private prisons, and prisons outside London and the
South East. The Advocate-General for Scotland (Lord Keen of
Elie) (Con) My Lords, private providers are obliged to
maintain...Request free trial
Asked by
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The Advocate-General for Scotland (Lord Keen of Elie)
(Con)
My Lords, private providers are obliged to maintain
sufficient staff to ensure that prisoners and staff are
safe and secure. We monitor performance against measures
specified in the contract. High application volumes are
generally received for prison officer and other vacancies
in prisons outside London and the south-east, most of which
have relatively low levels of staff turnover.
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(Lab)
My Lords, there are prisons outside the south-east that
have acute staffing difficulties, such as Manchester,
Liverpool and Leeds, where the problems have been
exacerbated for some years by staff being sent on detached
duty to southern jails. Will the Minister assure the House
that the Government are addressing that issue? What
assessment have the Government made of the impact of the
new terms being offered to London and the south on
recruitment by private prisons such as Birmingham and
Northumberland, where already the low numbers of staff have
led to serious, indeed shocking, incidents?
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As the noble Lord acknowledged, we have taken steps to
improve the rate of recruitment in the south-east, and
London in particular, by introducing a range of financial
incentives. That is because in these areas there is
considerable employment competition. That does not apply to
the same extent in the north-east and north-west. Indeed,
application rates in that part of the country are
considerably higher than they are in the other parts of the
country. Accordingly, it is not anticipated that these
incentives, directed to particular areas where there are
difficulties of recruitment, will have an adverse impact
elsewhere.
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(Con)
My Lords, should we not look again at the whole question of
private prisons? There are many people who feel that the
incarceration and looking after of prisoners is the duty of
the state and should not be farmed out?
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I am obliged to my noble friend. The state has many duties
and obligations, many of which are successfully contracted
out to independent contractors, as they are in the case of
prisons.
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(PC)
Will the Minister tell the House about the position of
recruitment for the new prison, HM Prison Berwyn in
Wrexham, north east Wales, which is not a private prison?
Will he say how recruitment is progressing and to what
extent that is being met by transfers from within the
system and by recruitment from outside the system?
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As I understand it, recruitment at the new prison is
progressing in a satisfactory way and will be done in a
staged manner. We will not, of course, suddenly introduce a
large number of prisoners into a new prison at one time. I
do not understand that there has been any need to recruit
from elsewhere within the prison establishment, but I
recognise that there are difficulties across the prison
establishment, not only with recruitment but with retention
of experienced officers. Of course, we are always looking
at ways to innovate and deal with that matter. Indeed, the
noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, mentioned the possibility of
golden handcuffs—which might be particularly appropriate in
the case of prison officers.
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(LD)
My Lords—
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(Lab)
My Lords—
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The Lord Privy Seal (Baroness Evans of Bowes Park)
(Con)
My Lords, we will hear from the Labour Benches and then the
Liberal Democrats.
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My Lords, can the Minister tell the House how long prison
officers are trained for and what are the core skills and
competences which they are expected to have at the end of
that training?
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I am not in a position to give details on the scope of core
skills, but I undertake to write to the noble Baroness
setting them out. I understand that there is an initial
training period of five weeks—but, again, I will seek to
secure confirmation of that and, if I have to correct it, I
will again write to her on that point. I will add that,
once prison officers are trained, there is a process of
mentoring once they begin full-time engagement as a prison
officer.
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My Lords, in HMP Northumberland, which is run by Sodexo and
was exposed recently by “Panorama”, there was a 40% drop in
staff from 2010 to 2013, and numbers have continued to fall
since Sodexo took over in 2013. What specific requirements
does the department impose on contractors in relation to
staffing levels and training in private prisons, and do the
Government have any plans to make those requirements more
rigorous?
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The position with regard to private prisons is, as I
indicated before, that private providers are contractually
obliged to maintain a sufficient level of staff to ensure
safety and security within the prison, but particular
numbers and ratios are not specified by the Government in
those contracts. Those contracts are of course monitored.
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(CB)
My Lords, can the Minister tell the House how many reserve
prison officers have been recruited, from the proposal made
by the previous Government’s Chief Secretary?
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My understanding is that the number is very low
indeed—potentially in single figures.
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(Con)
Does my noble friend agree that the vital work of prison
officers is powerfully reinforced by voluntary initiatives
such as that recently launched by the SPCK to raise
literacy significantly among prisoners?
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Clearly, the primary function of our prisons is education and
reform, which is why we look at prisons not in isolation but
in the context of a further social need to ensure
through-the-gate services for prisoners.
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