§ Lord Mountevansasked Her Majesty's Government:
What is their response to Sir Raymond Lygo's report on the management of the prison service.
The Minister of State, Home Office (Earl Ferrers)Sir Raymond Lygo submitted to my right honourable friend the Home Secretary a report, published on 16th December 1991, which provided a cogent analysis of the problems of the management of the prison service in England and Wales, and offered a wide-ranging and coherent set of recommendations for tackling them. We are indebted to Sir Raymond, and to the noble Lord, Lord Rayner, who assisted in producing the report, for the speed and thoroughness with which the review was carried out. We are grateful for the wide range of comments on the report which have been received from both within and outside the service—including from Lord Justice Woolf and His Honour Judge Tumim, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons. We were impressed by the general level of support for the great majority of Sir Raymond's recommendations.
The central recommendation in Sir Raymond's report is for the prison service to move to executive agency status under the next steps initiative. We have concluded that this is indeed the way forward for the prison service and we intend that the service should become an agency as from 1st April 1993. Consultations with the trade unions and other interested parties will begin shortly.
In line with Sir Raymond's recommendations, we intend to create a supervisory board, which would have responsibility for advising the Home Secretary on strategic, policy and resource questions affecting the service. We believe that the supervisory board should be chaired by the Home Office Minister responsible for prison matters. We do not share Sir Raymond's view that there is a role for a part-time non-executive chairman to head the management board. The chief executive, who will be appointed by open competition, and who will chair the management board, will be directly accountable to the Home Secretary.
Sir Raymond's other recommendations cover a wide range of personnel and management issues; they will be followed up appropriately in the coming months. We strongly endorse his recommendation that the prison service should be prepared to recruit from outside to management posts at headquarters and establishments, and expect to see that objective progressed vigorously.
One recommendation to which we are not attracted is the extension of the wearing of uniform to all governors in establishments. We share the concerns 60WA expressed by a number of commentators about the impact that would have on the future direction of the service. We await with interest the recommendations of the current internal review on modes of dress in the service.
Sir Raymond's important report merits a vigorous and decisive response. We believe that the move of the prison service to executive agency status, with the other measures which we have announced, will provide the right framework for placing the management of the service on a more professional footing, providing the most positive environment for staff to work in and, above all, ensuring the delivery of an improved service both to the public and to those held in custody.