§ Mr. Wheelerasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he has any plans for changing the pattern of employment for prison inmates.
§ Mr. Corbettasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prison workshops it is planned to close in the next year and next two years; and what are the estimated savings in cost and staff.
§ Mr. BrittanFollowing my announcement to the House on 31 October 1984 about the control, management and policies of prison service industries and farms at column 987, I asked the Prisons Board to examine how far prison industries are making a satisfactory contribution to providing worthwhile employment for prison inmates. The Prisons Board found that in many cases resources could be deployed to better effect. A considerable number of workshops had ceased to provide sufficient employment to be worth retaining; a small number no longer had a market for the goods they produced; others had more staff than justified by the present number of inmates employed.
In the light of the Prisons Board's preliminary analysis, I have asked the prison department to examine on the ground how the present network of industrial workshops could be rationalised, while retaining the existing level of work and related activity for inmates. When I am satisfied that arrangements for alternative worthwhile activity have been made the process of rationalisation will be implemented. Staff will be redeployed in a more effective way wherever possible, both within existing establishments and in some cases at the new prison establishments under construction which will provide some 1,800 new industrial work places for inmates and will require around 130 additional staff to man the workshops.
The workshops under review are open on average for only about 11 hours a week, and in many cases provide only simple and repetitive tasks with few training or learning opportunities for inmates. The review offers the opportunity to deploy the considerable resources voted by Parliament to better effect, while ensuring that inmates are occupied on purposeful activity outside their cells for no less time than at present.
This review does not apply to workshops in dispersal prisons, which have been under separate examination. Every opportunity is being taken to promote their more effective use.
A copy of a detailed statement by the Director General of the Prison Service explaining to staff the nature and purpose of the review has been placed in the Library.