§ Mr. George HowarthTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if he will break down the savings achieved for each privatised prison escort area, showing how the savings are achieved; [40463]
(2) what is the cost for letting each escort contract; to whom each contract has been let; what is the budget reduction for each area as a result of the privatisation of the escort service, to how many staff posts is this equivalent; and what redundancies have occurred so far. [40462]
§ Miss WiddecombeResponsibility for these matters has been delegated to the temporary Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from Richard Tilt to Mr. George Howarth, dated 6 November 1995:
571WThe Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Questions about the contracted out court escort service.To date contracts have been implemented for the provision of this service in four of the eight court escort areas in England and Wales. This work was previously undertaken by the Prison Service and the police.The attached table shows the contractor in each area together with information about costs and, insofar as the Prison Service is concerned, budget reductions expressed in financial and staffing terms. The savings relate to posts in the police and Prison Service deployed on court escort duties on a full time and part-time basis and vehicle mileage costs.The actual level of reduction in respect of police service posts could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. Decisions about how to manage the reductions, which were effected by top slicing police service budgets, were taken locally.The direct costs to the Prison Service of the process of letting the contracts were approximately £150,000 per area.
Area Contractor Annual cost £ million1 Previous cost £ million2 Saving £ million Budgetary reduction (Prison Service) £ million3 Number of staff posts lost (Prison Service) 4 Redundancies 7 (East Midlands) Group 4 Court Services 8.1 10.7 2.6 1.6 78 — 3 (London) Securicor Custodial Services Ltd. 22.0 29.8 7.8 3.8 250 3 4 (East Anglia) Group 4 Court Services 7.8 8.3 0.5 1.9 86 1 6 (Merseyside, Greates Manchester North Wales) Group 4 Court Services 12.5 14.7 2.2 2.7 124 — 1 Contract cost based on first year of full operation. 2 Equivalent cost of the Police and Prison Service operation prior to contracting out (includes overheads, vehicle costs, catering and medical support). 3 Budgetary reductions relates to Prison Service only. 4 The posts shown as being given up were those sufficient to meet the cost of the Prison Service contribution to the contract cost. Other officers previously employed on court escort work were redeployed to other operational duties.