Prisoners are either held in police cells under Operation Safeguard or as ad-hoc "lockouts".
Operation Safeguard was used in 2006 and 2007. Table 1 shows the number of occasions on which prisoners have been held in police cells under Operation Safeguard in each police force area in England and Wales in 2006 and 2007. (One occasion is defined as one prisoner night spent in a police cell.)
Police force area 2006 2007 Avon and Somerset 0 132 Bedfordshire 0 389 Cambridgeshire 212 1,157 Cheshire 103 4,038 Cleveland 0 4 Cumbria 0 318 Derbyshire 113 439 Devon and Cornwall 38 1,803 Dorset 71 355 Durham 42 1,090 Dyfed Powys 1 615 Essex 1,009 3,963 Gloucestershire 0 17 Greater Manchester 15 2,800 Gwent 0 839 Hampshire 65 1,384 Hertfordshire 40 1,170 Humberside 0 84 Kent 335 3,292 Lancashire 0 1,636 Leicestershire 0 2,689 Lincolnshire 168 1,446 Merseyside 196 165 Metropolitan 333 9,799 Norfolk 0 20 North Wales 14 1,619 North Yorkshire 0 39 Northamptonshire 219 1,187 Northumbria 0 1,113 Nottinghamshire 0 184 South Wales 81 1,254 South Yorkshire 0 935 Staffordshire 0 2 Suffolk 83 1,085 Surrey 0 107 Sussex 338 258 Thames Valley 433 2,627 Warwickshire 93 1,086 West Mercia 0 55 West Midlands 570 6,237 West Yorkshire 45 3,432 Wiltshire 0 89
The police forces involved in Operation Safeguard charge NOMS for the cost of making cells available to accommodate prisoners. As invoices are received in arrears and may be subject to variable costs dependent upon individual prisoner and other circumstances, cost per year by force cannot be accurately calculated. However, the average estimated cost of holding a prisoner in a police cell under Operation Safeguard is currently in the region of £385 per night.
Table 2 shows the total numbers of prisoners accommodated overnight in police cells as ad-hoc lockouts.
Ad-hoc lockout data are not available for individual police forces and are approximate due to diverse recording methods.
Number 2003 1,037 2004 682 2005 918 2006 1,062 2007 126
The agreed basic charge for ad-hoc lockouts is £55 per prisoner per night. Police forces may invoice additional charges to cover weekend and bank holidays, medical charges and the need for additional staff. The average cost is therefore estimated to be £120 per prisoner per night.