§ Mr. Simon HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what evaluation his Department's assessors made of the proposals for prison regimes of the separate bidders for the contract to manage HMP Doncaster; and if he will make a statement. [97728]
§ Mr. BoatengThe evaluation of the operational proposals was based on two Prison Service objectives:
- To protect the public by holding those committed by the courts in a safe, decent and healthy environment:
- to run a secure and orderly prison;
- to treat people fairly, openly and correctly in our work;
- to provide decent conditions of care; and
- to manage all resources effectively.
- To reduce crime by providing constructive regimes which address offending behaviour in custody and after release.
Each of these two objectives is underpinned by more detailed criteria. Each bid was scored against these criteria and all exceeded the minimum operational requirements.
§ Mr. Simon HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what information relating to the competitive tendering process for the management of prison contracts is made publicly available; and if he will make a statement. [97732]
§ Mr. BoatengIn each competition for the management of a prison, invitations to tender are issued in which bidders are given guidance on what needs to be covered in their bids and how the competition thereafter will be run. These documents are publicly available.
§ Mr. Simon HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what costs will be incurred, and who will be responsible for them, as a result of the transfer of the management of HMP Buckley Hall from Group 4 to the Prison Service; and if he will make a statement. [97735]
§ Mr. BoatengThe start up costs to the Prison Service identified in the bid for Buckley Hall are estimated to be £450,000. They will form part of the overall contract price.
§ Mr. Simon HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on his plans to market-test prisons which fail to meet performance standards; and if he will make a statement. [97737]
§ Mr. BoatengThe Prison Service is developing the criteria to be used to identify which failing prisons should be market tested. I have asked them to report to me on this in January.
§ Mr. Simon HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will publish the bid evaluation documents relating to the competitive tendering process for(a) HMP Doncaster and (b) HMP Buckley Hall; and if he will make a statement. [97726]
§ Mr. BoatengThe bid evaluation documents for both Doncaster and Buckley Hall prisons contain commercially sensitive information and are treated as commercial in confidence; therefore, they cannot be published.
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§ Mr. Simon HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what overall evaluation his Department's assessors made of the separate bids for the contract to manage HMP Doncaster; and if he will make a statement; [97729]
(2) what the criteria are for evaluating bids for the management of prisons; and if he will make a statement. [97730]
§ Mr. BoatengBids for the management of prisons are assessed on the criteria of deliverability, cost and quality. Deliverability is assessed in terms of financial robustness and operational effectiveness. Cost, expressed in terms of net present value, and quality are then considered. In evaluating proposals, assessors look for evidence that bidders have clear and feasible plans for meeting the requirements and that staff numbers and mix are compatible with the design and regime of the establishment.
All the bids for the management of Doncaster prison, from the in-house bid team, Premier Prison Services and Group 4, were judged by the evaluation panel to exceed the minimum requirements.
The marking system was based on the two Prison Service objectives and their five functions. Each function was broken down into sections, or secondary criteria, and a list of key criteria was devised for each section which sets out the main points to be addressed in order for the requirements to be met. Bidders' responses were marked on a scale of 0 to 6 according to the quality of their responses in how they met the requirements of each of the key criteria.
Premier Prison Services' bid was assessed as best fulfilling these criteria to win the contract for Doncaster prison.
§ Mr. Simon HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the reason is for extending the period of new private prison contracts to 10 years from the previous limit of five years; and if he will make a statement. [97734]
§ Mr. BoatengBids were invited for 5 years and ten years. The ten year option offered better value for money for both Buckley Hall and Doncaster prisons.
§ Mr. Simon HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will publish the results of HMP Doncaster and HMP Buckley Hall on key performance indicators in each of the last five years for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement. [97727]
§ Mr. BoatengThe key performance indicator (KPI) results for Doncaster and Buckley Hall prisons are given in the tables. Figures are only available since April 1996.
KPI results for overcrowding, cost per place and staff training are excluded from this analysis. The overcrowding KPI is formulated in terms of overall Prison Service capacity and population levels and is, therefore, not applicable to individual prisons. Cost per place figures for private prisons are not calculated on a basis comparable with the Prison Service KPI and private prisons are not required to provide information on staff training levels.
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Her Majesty's Prison Doncaster KPI 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 Escapes 0 0 0 Assault rate (percentage) 20.5 19.2 19.7 Average weekly purposeful activity hours 24.0 16.7 17.0 Positive mandatory drug tests (percentage) 27.6 22.8 12.8 Offending Behaviour Programmes (including sex offender programmes) 0 0 0 Prisoners on standard and enhanced regimes unlocked for at least 10 hours on weekdays? Yes Yes Yes
Her Majesty's Prison Buckley Hall KPI 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 Escapes 4 1 0 Assault rate (percentage) 4.7 4.5 2.9 Average weekly purposeful activity hours 28.5 32.8 26.6 Positive mandatory drug tests (percentage) 37.4 38.7 37.4 Offending Behaviour Programmes (including sex offender programmes) 0 0 0 Prisoners on standard and enhanced regimes unlocked for at least 10 hours on weekdays? Yes Yes Yes
§ Mr. Simon HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what information is considered commercially confidential by his Department in relation to the competitive tendering process for private prison contracts; and if he will make a statement. [97733]
§ Mr. BoatengThe bids made in the competition, in particular any financial information, are commercially confidential as is any subsequent documentation directly referring to the bids.
When the contract or service level agreement is signed the details of the winning bid, including price, are put in the public domain.
§ Mr. Simon HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if the financial penalties which can be imposed on the managers of prisons are capped; and if he will make a statement. [97736]
§ Mr. BoatengThe contracts between the Prison Service and the private companies managing prisons all contain a cap on the penalties that can be imposed on the contractor. In the case of the successful bid for Doncaster prison, the cap is 5 per cent. of the annual contract value.
Financial penalties can be imposed for three reasons:
- failure to meet performance measures in the contract, for which there is a cap of 5 per cent. of the contract price;
- failure to provide an available place for which 100 per cent. of the payment due is deducted; and
- doubling cells in excess of the permitted level for which there are different deductions in different contracts.
The first type of penalty applies both to prisons built by the Prison Service and then contracted out, and to those designed, constructed, managed and financed by the contractor (DCMF). The second and third penalties apply only to DCMF contracts.
§ Mr. Simon HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if(a) Ministers and (b) Prison Service managers can overrule the assessment of those evaluating the bids for contracts to manage prisons; and if he will make a statement. [97731]
§ Mr. BoatengBids are considered by an evaluation panel comprised of senior Prison Service managers. Recommendations of the panel are put to the Prison
586WService Management Board, which may challenge or overrule these recommendations. The final decision rests with the Director General, to whom such decisions are delegated under the Prison Service Agency Framework Document.