§ Mr. HoyleTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer of 15 May,Official Report, column 17, what steps are being taken to recruit more members of the ethnic minorities to governor grades. [25530]
§ Mr. Michael ForsythResponsibility 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. Doug Hoyle, dated 24 May 1995:
The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Question about the recruitment of members of the ethnic minorities to the prison governor grades.During a voluntary survey of staff ethnic origins, four members of the governor grades indicated that they were members of the ethnic minorities. There are a further 520 members of the prison officer grades of ethnic minority origin, who have an avenue of promotion into the governor grades. We expect that the currently small number of governor grades from ethnic minority backgrounds will increase over time, as some of these officers progress through the ranks under the normal arrangements for promotion. The Prison Service is continuing to try and increase the level of recruitment to the prison officer grades from ethnic minority groups.The Prison Service's Acceleration Promotion Scheme is attempting to recruit ethnic minority graduates by a range of means. We have taken part in a mentoring scheme with one of the London universities, which arranges for black and Asian students to shadow a manager from the ethnic minorities, and an undergraduate is shortly to be sponsored by the Prison Service through the Windsor Fellowship Scheme. Last autumn, the Accelerated Promotion Scheme's national recruitment campaign placed advertisements in ethnic minority newspapers—The Voice, The Weekly Journal, Asian Times and Eastern Eye—as well as in the national 652W broadsheets. Advertising is also placed in careers publications aimed specifically at ethnic minority undergraduates, such as Hobsons' Racial Equality Casebook and Kaleidoscope, both of which are circulated widely among universities and community relations organisations. Attempts will be made late this year to target universities with high numbers of black and Asians students, where we hope to offer presentations outlining career options in the Prison Service, under both the Accelerated Promotion Scheme and more generally.
§ Mr. HoyleTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what number of prison governors, by grade, are women. [25531]
§ Mr. Michael ForsythResponsibility 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. Doug Hoyle, dated 24 May 1995:
The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Question about the number of female governors in the Prison Service.As at 1 May 1995 there are 1,020 staff employed in governor grades, of whom 96 (9.4%) are women. Broken down by grade the numbers are as follows:
Grade Number of women in grade (%) Total number of staff in grade Governor 1 2 (4.4%) 46 Governor 2 5 (6.7%) 75 Governor 3 16 (12.7%) 126 Governor 4 37 (12%) 309 Governor 5 26 (7.8%) 429 Governor 5 (APS)1 10 (28.6%) 35 1 Accelerated Promotion Scheme, the Prison Service's fast-track management development scheme. The number of female governing governors has increased steadily over the last few years.
There are now eight male establishments and four female establishments where the governing governor is a woman. These are:
- Bullingdon
- Bullwood Hall (f)
- East Sutton Park (f)
- Erlestoke
- Holloway (f)
- Kirklevington
- Low Newton
- The Mount
- Norwich
- Pucklechurch (f)
- Swinfen Hall
- Woodhill
- The controller at Buckley Hall, a contracted prison, is a woman.