The 24 hour, seven days a week operational nature of the Ministry’s work in various sectors of the justice service necessitates a large number of our staff to regularly provide out of hours work. This flexible additional work is required in order to better protect the public and meet the needs of a modern service.
In line with good practice guidelines overtime is paid only with prior management authority to carry out specific work, which cannot be done within normal working hours. The majority of overtime paid in the Ministry of Justice relates to work done in Her Majesty’s Prison Service. Within Her Majesty’s Court Service examples of such work include provision of out of hours legal advice to judges on issues such as Emergency Protection Orders or Extradition matters, or the provision of Saturday court sittings. The Ministry of Justice is also responsible for overtime payments made to probation staff in the National Offender Management Service.
The following table shows the overtime payments to staff within the Ministry of Justice broken down by month from July 2007 to August 2008.
Area of Ministry of Justice £ July 2007 Former Department for Constitutional Affairs agencies and associated offices 1— National Offender Management Service and Office for Criminal Justice Reform 31,876.28 Her Majesty’s Prisons Service 906,672.93 Total overtime costs 938,549.21 August 2007 Former Department for Constitutional Affairs agencies and associated offices 1— National Offender Management Service and Office for Criminal Justice Reform 16,104.67 Her Majesty’s Prisons Service 1,324,897.48 Total overtime costs 1,341,002.15 September 2007 Former Department for Constitutional Affairs agencies and associated offices 413,339.04 National Offender Management Service and Office for Criminal Justice Reform 19,722.17 Her Majesty’s Prisons Service 949,660.93 Total overtime costs 1,382,722.14 October 2007 Former Department for Constitutional Affairs agencies and associated offices 531,030.82 National Offender Management Service and Office for Criminal Justice Reform 28,146.40 Her Majesty’s Prisons Service 826,973.12 Total overtime costs 1,386,150.34 November 2007 Former Department for Constitutional Affairs agencies and associated offices 700,991.79 National Offender Management Service and Office for Criminal Justice Reform 17,890.91 Her Majesty’s Prisons Service 1,226,404.48 Total overtime costs 1,945,287.18 December 2007 Former Department for Constitutional Affairs agencies and associated offices 650,574.97 National Offender Management Service and Office for Criminal Justice Reform 25,758.91 Her Majesty’s Prisons Service 702,118.36 Total overtime costs 1,378,452.24 January 2008 Former Department for Constitutional Affairs agencies and associated offices 643,558.45 National Offender Management Service and Office for Criminal Justice Reform 19,050.76 Her Majesty’s Prisons Service 962,208.19 Total overtime costs 1,624,817.40 February 2008 Former Department for Constitutional Affairs agencies and associated offices 834,554.36 National Offender Management Service and Office for Criminal Justice Reform 27,367.16 Her Majesty’s Prisons Service 891,539.35 Total overtime costs 1,753,460.87 March 2008 Former Department for Constitutional Affairs agencies and associated offices 782,040.82 National Offender Management Service and Office for Criminal Justice Reform 26,682.83 Her Majesty’s Prisons Service 912,752.52 Total overtime costs 1,721,476.17 April 2008 Former Department for Constitutional Affairs agencies and associated offices 1,025,311.68 National Offender Management Service and Office for Criminal Justice Reform 47,924.58 Her Majesty’s Prisons Service 969,909.44 Total overtime costs 2,043,145.70 May 2008 Former Department for Constitutional Affairs agencies and associated offices 707,760.34 National Offender Management Service and Office for Criminal Justice Reform 26,259.54 Her Majesty’s Prisons Service 971,016.57 Total overtime costs 1,705,036.45 June 2008 Former Department for Constitutional Affairs agencies and associated offices 694,089.43 National Offender Management Service and Office for Criminal Justice Reform 26,186.03 Her Majesty’s Prisons Service 959,315.12 Total overtime costs 1,679,590.58 July 2008 Former Department for Constitutional Affairs agencies and associated offices 765,693.44 National Offender Management Service and Office for Criminal Justice Reform n/a Her Majesty’s Prisons Service n/a Total overtime costs 765,693.44 August 2008 Former Department for Constitutional Affairs agencies and associated offices 649,501.42 National Offender Management Service and Office for Criminal Justice Reform n/a Her Majesty’s Prisons Service n/a Total Overtime Costs 649,501.42 1 The information requested could be provided only at disproportionate cost.