§ Mr. Wheelerasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is yet able to publish the report of the study of prison officers' complementing and shift systems, to which he referred in his speech to the House on 6 May, Official Report, columns 44–45; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. HurdA study of complementing and shift systems undertaken by a joint team of Prison Department officials and management consultants was set in hand by my predecessor, my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Richmond, Yorks (Mr. Brittan) last September. I have now had an opportunity to study the 397W report and have decided that it should be published. I shall be placing copies of the report in the Library. I shall be making the report available to the prison service generally and to the Prison Officers' Association.
The report presents a telling indictment of the present shift and complementing systems in the prison service and the working practices which surround them. It is critical of the systems, not of those who operate them. It makes recommendations for new systems which would release large amounts of now unproductive capacity which ought to be used for other purposes: the report suggests that wasted capacity amounts to 15 to 20 per cent. The professional advice which I have had suggests that the recommended new systems are soundly based and practical and I have asked that proposals for change based on them be worked up as quickly as possible by Prison Department management. As part of this process, account will be taken of the findings of a scrutiny led by the central efficiency unit of the escorting to court of prisoners held in prison service establishments as well as of an internal review of the management structure of prisons.
Taken together, the recommendations of these studies represent a major programme of reform for the prison service and as such they will obviously need to be discussed with those who represent the staff of the service; including the Prison Officers' Association. One of prison officers' principal concerns will clearly be the effect which these prospective changes will have on how prison officers are paid. As part of the overall package for reform which we shall be developing, therefore, we shall also be looking at what needs to be done to modernise pay systems. The package which we shall be proposing will seek to provide the changes which are necessary to enable the service to be organised more effectively and pay systems which will give staff and management a fair deal.
The prison service has to be reshaped in relation to the way it organises itself to do the work required of it. Recent events have amply proved that. The work of modernisation needs to be carried forward urgently. I think it would be reasonable, given the circumstances, to set a target date of April 1987 for the new systems. I trust that all those who will be involved in examining and discussing the scope for change will recognise the importance of the task which faces them and will approach it with good sense and understanding.