§ 16. Mr. Steinbergasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will estimate the reduction in real terms in the number of prison officer jobs over the next five years.
§ Mr. John PattenPresent plans envisage a substantial increase, not a decrease, in the number of prison officers employed over the next five years.
§ Mr. SteinbergDespite what the Minister says, is there not on the way a crisis in the staffing of prisons? Is it not true that during the next five years there will be a reduction of 25 per cent. in the number of prison officers, which will cause problems for the prison officers themselves, the security of the prisons and the communities in which the prisons are situated?
§ Mr. PattenI do not think that the hon. Gentleman heard my answer. There will be an increase, not a decrease, in the number of prison officers during the next five years. The hon. Gentleman has levelled his criticism in the wrong direction by aiming it at a Government who have spent 40 per cent. more in real terms on the prison service and increased the numbers of prison officers by 20 per cent. since 1979. The hon. Gentleman should talk to some of his right hon. and hon. Friends who were responsible for starving the prison service by failing to recruit sufficient prison officers and by not paying them properly between 1974 and 1979.