§ Mr. BeithTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if he will provide details of each default notice issued in the last two years for failure to comply with private prison contract conditions; and if he will make a statement; [18088]
(2) if he will list the dates, amounts and details of the financial penalties incurred by private prison operators for contract failures; and if he will make a statement. [18089]
55W
§ Ms QuinThere have been two occasions when the contractors managing prisons were penalised financially. First, in February 1994, a payment of £41,167 (excluding value added tax) was withheld from UKDS Limited because of an incident at Her Majesty's Prison, Blakenhurst, which resulted in a temporary reduction in cell availability. Second, a deduction of £526 was made from payments due to Group 4 under the contractual performance measurement system for Her Majesty's Prison, Buckley Hall.
Notices issued to contractors managing prisons when they fail to comply with their contract are now termed improvement notices; in the past, they have sometimes been described as cure or default notices. The number of and reasons for such notices issued to privately managed prisons since 1 November 1995 are set out in the table below.
Prison Date Reason for notice Her Majesty's Prison Blakenhurst 22 November 1995 Failure to provide a full set of standing orders in the prison library 3 September 1996 Failure to maintain accurately prisoners' records 25 March 1997 Failure to provide meals for prisoners transferring to another prison Her Majesty's Prison Buckley Hall 17 January 1996 Failure to operate fully the personal officer scheme 17 January 1996 Failure to provide sufficient work opportunities 15 August 1996 Employment of three members of staff without security clearance 10 April 1997 Failure to comply with procedures laid down in the Security Manual 6 November 1997 Operation of prison shop by subcontractor without Her Majesty's Prison Service authorisation Her Majesty's Prison Doneaster — — Her Majesty's Prison Wolds — —