§ Mr. George HowarthTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the number of directors' emergencies which were called, and the reasons for calling them during each financial year since 1991–92 for each prison establishment. [28320]
§ 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 A. J. Butler to Mr. George Howarth, dated 13 May 1996:
The Home Secretary has asked me, in the absence of the Director General from the office, to reply to your recent Question about `directors'
emergencies'.
The term 'directors' emergencies' is not in common usage in the Prison Service but there are occasions when, for operational reasons, the normal provisions of our Industrial Relations Procedural Agreement are overridden—for example when a failure to agree has been registered by a branch of the Prison Officers' Association about plans for a prison to take additional prisoners, when this has been necessary to avoid holding prisoners in police cells. Such occasions are infrequent and no central record is kept of them.