asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much time, on average, per day, prison officers spend outside the prison in the course of their duties.

I regret that the information is not available centrally and cannot be obtained without disproportionate cost and effort. But a survey carried out in 1975 showed that the time then spent on court/escort duties amounted to about one hour a day per prison officer averaged over the whole service in England and Wales. These and other outside duties are, however, undertaken by only a small proportion of prison officers. The majority work wholly within the prison, although in the case of open prisons outside working parties are more common.