Prison Service (Performance) (Hansard, 20 May 1996)

§ Miss Widdecombe

The Prison Service is today publishing its plan for 1996–99. The six strategic objectives of the period are:

(1) to achieve unit cost reductions of 10.2 per cent. and to contain capital spending by encouraging greater private sector involvement while maintaining the balance between security, control, purposeful regimes, and support for staff.
(2) To sustain a permanent step improvement in performance on escapes, building on what we achieved in 1995–96; in particular to complete the programme of work to enhance security for category A and high profile category B prisoners, and to achieve a significant reduction in escapes from escorts.
(3) To maintain control and a safe environment for staff and prisoners in the face of cost reductions and operational pressures; specifically, to carry through work on incentives, the drugs strategy and prevention of suicide.
(4) To maintain balanced regimes which support control and include affordable, effective activities to reduce risk of re-offending.
(5) To meet basic health care needs of the population, and to target particularly the transfer of mentally ill prisoners to hospital.
(6) To strengthen effectiveness of staff at all levels and specifically to increase the effectiveness of financial controls and systems.

The plan also sets performance targets for 1996–97.

With the agreement of colleagues in the Treasury and the Office of Public Service, as required by the Prison Service framework document, we have decided to make changes to the service's key performance indicators.

These changes aim to: recognise that the service has achieved some of its key performance targets in full; reflect the emerging priorities for the service in the coming years; and take account of the recommendations made by Sir John Learmont on performance indicators.

For 1996–97, we have decided that the service should drop two of its existing key performance indicators.

These are: KP14 (access to sanitation): the service achieved its target of ensuring that all prisoners have 24-hour access to sanitation on 12 April 1996; and KP 7 (access to minimum visits): all prisoners have had the opportunity to exceed the minimum visiting entitlement for the last two years, so KPI7 has been fully achieved.

In their place, the service has three new KPIs covering: the proportion of random drug tests that prove positive. This new indicator was recommended by Sir John Learmont and will measure the service's performance in achieving one of its key priorities, dealing with drug abuse in prisons; the number of prisoners who complete programmes accredited as being likely to reduce the risk of re-offending. This new indicator will measure the service's performance in fulfilling one of its primary functions: preparing prisoners for release; the number of days per year staff spend in training. This new indicator was recommended by Sir John Learmont. It will encourage the service to improve its performance on staff training, which in turn will lead to improvements in performance across the board.

We have also decided that the service's existing KPI on time unlocked should be amended. Currently, this measures the proportion of prisoners held in establishments that unlock all prisoners for at least 12 hours per weekday. The director general has advised me that some establishments have experienced problems, including drugs trafficking and intimidation of vulnerable prisoners, where prisoners are unlocked in the evenings without constructive activities being available to keep them occupied. We judge a lower threshold to be more appropriate, but with an increased target for purposeful activity. Therefore, from 1996–97, the KPI will measure the proportion of prisoners who are held in establishments that unlock all prisoners on standard or enhanced regimes for more than 10 hours per weekday. This will maintain pressure for improvement in those establishments 24W unlocking only for eight or nine hours. There will be an increased target for purposeful activity of 26.5 hours per week for 1996–97, compared with 25.5 hours per week for 1995–96.

In addition, the plan will include additional performance information covering:

a breakdown of assaults showing separately those on staff and on prisoners and others;
the number and distribution of self-inflicted deaths
staff turnover and sickness rates; and
the rate of reduction in the headquarters overhead.

Taken together, these changes will give the Prison Service a challenging set of targets across the range of its activities while allowing it to focus on its top priorities of custody, control, tackling drug abuse and working to reduce re-offending.

The targets we have set for 1996–97 will require the service to improve performance against most of its indicators, including escapes, the rate of assaults, the rate of positive testing for drug misuse, the amount of purposeful activity for prisoners, investment in staff training and cost per prisoner place.