§ Baroness Ewart-Biggsasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many person-hours of prison officers' time were lost to the prison service as a result of new working arrangements in each year since the introduction of Fresh Start, and how many of these hours were made up by the recruitment of additional prison officers.
The Minister of State, Home Office (Earl Ferrers): Fresh Start was introduced against the background of clear evidence that a substantial proportion of the hours worked under the old shift systems and overtime arrangements were unproductive. It was, therefore, an integral part of the transition to Fresh Start that the Prison Service would manage it with an initial reduction of 15 per cent. in the overall number of prison officers' hours, which in March 1987 has averaged around 970,000 per week.
A further reduction is achieved each year as the result of the progressive reduction in the working week for officers under the framework agreement from an average of 48 hours in 1987–88 to 39 from April 1992. Half of this further reduction has been and will continue to be compensated for by additional recruitment and half has to be made up by increased efficiency.
Since 1987 there has been a net reduction of around 51,000 hours under the framework agreement. Over the same period, however, more than 2,100 prison officers have been recruited to staff additional places which have been opened in new and existing establishments, the number of prison auxiliaries and night patrols has increased by 800 to 1,888 and the prison population has fallen by over 3,000.
The Prison Service therefore has about 10 per cent. fewer prison officer hours in aggregate to deploy now than at the start of Fresh Start. But with the increase in auxiliaries and night patrols and the fall in the prison population the number of uniformed staff hours per inmate has remaind constant.