§ Mr. BlairTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what effect the applicability of the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 1981 has had on(a) the time taken to implement the privatisation of, and (b) the amount of compensation to be paid to the private contractor awarded the contract for, the transport and supplies department of the prison service.
§ Mr. Peter LloydThe warehousing and distribution function of the supply and transport department was market-tested in 1991 and approval given to contract out,he function from 1 April 1993. No contract has yet been signed. The implications of recent legal advice that the
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31 December 1981 31 December 1991 30 September 1992 Chief probation officer 55 55 55 Deputy chief probation officer 181 24 23 Assistant chief probation officer — 210 229 Senior probation officer 964 1,163 1,193 Main-grade probation officer 4,453 5,702 5,922 Ancillary 11990 1,864 1,851 Others 115,897 5,314 5,396 1 These figures include 990 part-time ancillary staff and 2,823 part-time other staff and so no direct comparison is possible with the 1991 and 1992 figures which arc for full-time equivalent staff. Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations are applicable to the contracting out of this function are being considered.