§ Mr. AllanTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what criteria the Prison Service uses to allocate resources to individual prisons. [40019]
§ Ms QuinOperational Directors and their area managers determine the budgets for individual establishments within the overall budget for each operational directorate. Budget proposals are discussed with each governor on the basis of the establishment's proposed strategic plan. Criteria include: planned changes in prisoner numbers or types of prisoner; changes in property requirements, for example, on security or drug treatment; local pressures or factors; and the comparative efficiency of each establishment, as indicated by cost comparisons between prisons, which are produced centrally.
§ Mr. AllanTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will publish the methodology used by his Department to compare the cost of public and private prisons; if he will publish details of the latest comparison; to what factors he attributes the differences in costs; and if he will make a statement. [40081]
§ Ms QuinThe methodology used to compare the cost of publicly and privately managed prisons was developed by Coopers & Lybrand for their Review of Comparative Costs and Performance of Privately and Publicly Operated
362WNumberpower to GCSE and GNVQs, and there has been a significant rise in the number of prisoners taking them. There is also a wide range of training for work.
The total time spent by prisoners on the sale of products and services to the private sector in 1997–98 is 78,750 hours per week. Figures are not available for earlier years.
The average hours spent each week by prisoners on constructive activities are given in table B.
Prisons (1996) and has been used in subsequent studies carried out by the Home Office. The latest study, by the Home Office Offenders and Corrections Unit, covered 1996–97. It showed that the cost difference had narrowed and the costs of privately managed prisons were 8 per cent. to 15 per cent. lower than the public sector. The report was published in December 1997 and copies placed in the Library.
The Prison Service carried out a separate study of the reasons for the cost difference which showed it was due primarily to lower average staff costs and fewer staff per prisoner in privately managed prisons. Contributory factors included lower salaries and pension costs, a longer working week, shorter holidays and lower levels of sick absence. Copies of this report have been placed in the Library.