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Prisons : Manpower

Volume 506: debated on Tuesday 23 February 2010

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the average length of continuous employment in the same prison was of (a) prison officers and (b) prison governors in (i) privately and (ii) publicly managed prisons in each of the last five years for which figures are available. (318060)

The information requested is set out as follows:

Public Sector Establishments

Information on the length of continuous service in the same public sector Prison Service establishment for both prison officers and operational managers is contained in the following table. The information relates to the average length of time that the officers or managers, who were in post on 31 December each year, had previously spent at their then current establishment.

Average time in current establishment of public sector staff

Average length of service (years) in current establishment

As at 31 December each year

Prison officers1

Operational managers2

2009

8.9

5.8

2008

8.4

5.5

2007

8.2

5.3

2006

8.1

5.3

2005

8.0

5.1

1 Prison officers only, does not include senior or principal officers.

2 Includes all grades of operational managers, not only the in-charge governor. Manager G to senior manager A.

Private Sector Establishments1

Information about private sector establishments has been provided by individual contractors where available. Limitations in the data available mean that not all private sector establishments have information available in a format that is compatible with the question. Information for these establishments is presented in a separate table.

The private sector establishments have been in operation for a relatively short time and consequently the average length of service is inevitably lower than in public sector establishments where some individual officers have been in post for up to 40 years.

1 Information on average length of service was not available from the HR systems of Wolds and Parc without undertaking a large-scale manual data collection exercise.

Average time in current establishment of private sector staff1

Average length of service (years) in current establishment

As at 31 December each year

Prison custody officers

Governors2

2009

4.1

6.0

2008

4.2

5.0

2007

3.9

4.8

2006

3.8

5.6

2005

3.9

4.6

1 Information relates to Altcourse, Bronzefield, Dovegate (since 2007 only), Forest Bank and Peterborough.

2 The definition of governor differs across contractors from all managers to only the in-charge manager.

Proportion of all staff1 with more than two years service

Proportion of staff with more than two years service in establishment (Percentage)

2009

76.9

2008

63.0

2007

65.2

2006

65.1

20052

n/a

1 Information relates to all staff at Ashfield, Doncaster and Lowdham Grange.

2 Information not available for 2005.