Justice written question – answered at on 12 June 2014.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice
(1) on what occasions prisons have used detached duty staff from other establishments since 1 September 2013;
(2) how many staff of each grade were used as part of the detached duty arrangements in each month since December 2013;
(3) how many staff of each grade were available for detached duty arrangements in each month since December 2013;
(4) which prisons received how many detached duty staff of each grade in each month since December 2013;
(5) how much was spent on accommodation and subsistence for prison officers providing detached duty in prisons in (a) January, (b) February, (c) March and (d) April 2014.
The deployment of staff between prisons on detached duty is a regular and normal part of prison resourcing. It allows staff to be allocated from prisons with the capacity to provide them, to those where additional staffing is required. On average over the three month period (January to March 2013), less than 1% of staff were provided on detached duty. A large proportion of the capacity is typically available from prisons that are in the process of closure or going through a re-role. This process temporarily releases a number of officers who are not supplied for specific occasions but are sent and received on a shift pattern throughout the week.
The number of staff available for detached duty at any one time is a matter for operational judgment and takes account of overall staff numbers, levels of sickness, prisoner numbers and the regime and security requirements.
The average weekly provision of staff, broken down by grade, that were received as part of the nationally co-ordinated detached duty scheme , are shown in the tables below for January to March 2014.
Table: Average weekly provision of staff on detached duty to prisons in England and Wales, broken down by grade, January-March 2014 | |||
Grade | January 2014 | February 2014 | March 2014 |
Band 3 | 200 | 150 | 130 |
Band 4 | 10 | 10 | - |
Total | 210 | 160 | 130 |
We have maintained our policy of rounding figures to the nearest 10 in line with the department’s policy for presenting staffing data. The data is only accurate to this level because late updating of data within HR systems means that the unrounded figures recorded for a specific date have a margin of error around them. Totals are formed from unrounded parts prior to rounding. For this reason, rounded totals may not equal the sum of their rounded parts. Values of 5 or fewer are denoted as ‘-’.
Table: List of prisons receiving staff on detached duty by average weekly full-time equivalent provision and grade, January - March 2014 | |||||
January 2014 | February 2014 | March 2014 | |||
Staffing provision | Band 3 | Band 4 | Band 3 | Band 4 | Band 3 |
5 or fewer | Aylesbury | Brixton | Aylesbury | Brixton | Aylesbury |
Bedford | Coldingley | Bedford | Coldingley | Brinsford | |
Belmarsh | Guys Marsh | Brinsford | Guys Marsh | Bullingdon | |
Brinsford | Wormwood Scrubs | Brixton | Wormwood Scrubs | Cookham Wood | |
Bristol | Bullingdon | Gartree | |||
Brixton | Cookham Wood | Glen Parva | |||
Bullingdon | Durham | Guys Marsh | |||
Coldingley | Gartree | Haverigg | |||
Cookham Wood | Guys Marsh | High Down | |||
Durham | Haverigg | Hindley | |||
Erlestoke | High Down | Isis | |||
Gartree | Hindley | Isle of Wight | |||
Haverigg | Holloway | Leicester | |||
Hindley | Humber | Lindholme and Moorland | |||
Holloway | Isis | Onley | |||
Humber | Leicester | Pentonville | |||
Isle of Wight | Onley | Sheppey Cluster | |||
Leicester | Send | Stocken | |||
Manchester | Stocken | The Mount |
Nottingham | The Mount | Wayland | |||
Onley | Wayland | Werrington | |||
Send | Werrington | Winchester | |||
Sheppey Cluster | Winchester | ||||
Stocken | Wormwood Scrubs | ||||
Wandsworth | |||||
Werrington | |||||
Winchester | |||||
Woodhill | |||||
10 | Glen Parva | High Down | Belmarsh | High Down | Belmarsh |
Guys Marsh | Glen Parva | Feltham | |||
High Down | Isle of Wight | Littlehey | |||
Isis | Lindholme and Moorland | Manchester | |||
Lindholme and Moorland | Littlehey | Nottingham | |||
Littlehey | Manchester | Portland | |||
Norwich | Pentonville | Rochester | |||
Pentonville | Portland | Woodhill | |||
Rochester | Rochester | ||||
The Mount | Sheppey Cluster | ||||
Wayland | Woodhill | ||||
Wormwood Scrubs | |||||
20 | Feltham | Feltham | Various London Prisons | ||
Portland |
Using centrally held financial records it is not possible, without incurring disproportionate cost, to disaggregate the costs of accommodation and subsistence claimed for detached duty from other expenses claimed by staff.
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