Prison Service (Hansard, 1 April 1993)

§ Mr. Kenneth Clarke

The Prison Service becomes an executive agency of the Home Office with effect from 1 April. Its director general, Derek Lewis, is the chief executive of the agency and will be responsible for the day-to-day management of the service.

I have set the following key targets for 1993–94, which are published in the Prison Service's business plan:

1. To ensure that the number of escapes from prison establishments and from escorts, expressed as a percentage of the average prison population, is fewer than in 1992–93.
2. To reverse, over the period of the corporate plan, the rising trend of assaults on staff, prisoners and others, expressed as a percentage of the average prison population.
3. To ensure that by 31 March 1994 no prisoner is held three to a cell in accommodation which is intended for one prisoner, subject to ensuring that no prisoners are held in police cells unless this is absolutely unavoidable.
4. To provide 24-hour access to sanitation in at least 4,700 more prison places, excluding new and renovated accommodation, as part of the programme to provide all prisoners with this facility by 31 December 1994.
5. To ensure that prisoners spend, on average, at least 3 per cent. more hours a week in purposeful activity, resulting in an average of 24.9 hours per week per prisoner.
6. To ensure that by 31 March 1994 at least 34 per cent. of prisoners are held in establishments where prisoners are unlocked for a total of at least 12 hours on weekdays.
7. To ensure that by 31 March 1994 at least 90 per cent. of prisoners are held in establishments where prisoners have the opportunity to exceed the minimum visiting entitlement.
8. To ensure that the average cost per prisoner place does not exceed £23,561.

I am placing in the Library copies of the Prison Service's framework document, corporate plan, business plan and a statement of citizens charter standards of service.