§ Mr. HuttonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the ratio of prison officers to prison inmates in(a) each privately operated prisons and (b) prisons operated by the Prison Service. [36255]
§ Miss WiddecombeResponsibility for this matter has been delegated to the Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from Richard Tilt to Mr. John Hutton, dated 11 July 1996:
The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Question about the ratio of prison officers to prisoners in the privately operated prisons and those operated by the Prison Service.269WThe information requested is shown in the attached table. The most recent data available concerning the private prisons was produced in January 1996. The information relating to Prison Service establishments is as at 1 April 1996. Due to the differences between the private and public prisons grading of officers, two ratios have been provided. The first ratio includes all officer grades and the second ratio is calculated from discipline officers. Both ratios for the publicly managed prisons include prison officers, senior officers and principal officers.
Prison establishment staffing: officer:inmate ratio Officer: inmate ratio Private prisons ratio 1:2.9 Public prisons ratio (all grades) 1:2.1 Public prisons ratio (discipline) 1:2.5