HC Deb 15 February 1995 vol 254 cc688-9W
Mr. Redmond

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will give the salary scales for(a) prison officers and (b) prison auxiliaries; and if he will distinguish between the duties of each.

Mr. Michael Forsyth

Responsibility for this matter has been delegated to the Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.

Letter from Derek Lewis to Mr. Martin Redmond, dated 15 February 1995:

The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Question about the salary scales for a) prison officers and b) prison auxiliaries; and to distinguish between the duties of each.The salary scales are from £15,630 to £19,491 for prison officers and £8,348 to £9,299 for prison auxiliaries. In addition to their basic salary, all prison auxiliaries receive 12.6 per cent. shift disturbance allowance and additional hours worked are paid by overtime. Prison officers are compensated for additional hours by time off in lieu.Prison officers are required to undertake and pass formal training at a Prison Service College and accept that they are fully mobile. They are required to demonstrate a wide range of skills and competencies in dealing with inmates in order to perform their duties, which include supervising activities, searching, escorting prisoners, counselling, offending behaviour programmes, advising on legal procedures, sentence planning, categorising prisoners, crisis intervention and support, report writing, security information collation, disciplinary action, interviewing, incident response (including control and restraint techniques) and pre-release course leadership.Prison auxiliaries are non mobile and perform a wide range of support duties, such as staff mess caterer, gate keeper, records officer, escorting contractors and assisting in control rooms.
Mr. George Howarth

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he intends to announce the successful bids for the next phase of private prisons.

Mr. Michael Forsyth

Responsibility for this matter has been delegated to the Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.

Letter from Derek Lewis to Mr. George Howarth, dated 15 February 1995:

The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Question about the next phase of contracted out prisons.

The next phase will be the first two design, construct, manage and finance prisons, one in Bridgend in South Wales and another in Merseyside.

We have received a first round of tenders and we are discussing those with the tenderers under the negotiated procedure of the EU Services Directive. We hope to issue a final invitation to tender in the next few weeks.

After consideration of tenders, we would expect to make an announcement of the successful contractor or contractors in the spring or early summer.