To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prison service governors and Home Office civil servants have switched to private companies involved in bids for prison contracts in the last three years; and if he will give details.

It is not possible to give precise information about the numbers of former Prison Service governors and Home Office civil servants who may have taken up employment with private companies involved in bids for prison contracts in the last three years, since staff below grade 3 who wish to take up outside employment are required to seek approval to do so for a period of only two years after leaving Crown employment and in certain specified circumstances. Six former members of the Home Office have sought and obtained approval under these procedures to take up employment with private companies which have been involved in bids for prison contracts. All were governor grades; three were governing establishments; one was a head of custody in an establishment; one was in the inspectorate of prisons; and one in the remands contracts unit. In addition, a former police superintendent on secondment to the remands contracts unit was given approval to take up employment with such a company.