Skip to main content

National Offender Management Service: Manpower

Volume 506: debated on Wednesday 24 February 2010

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what steps the human resources department of the National Offender Management Service is taking to redress the imbalance in the terms and conditions of staff in the prison and probation services. (312572)

The prison and probation services operate within the framework of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) Agency. For historical reasons the two services have different employment structures. Prison service staff are civil servants and are directly employed by the NOMS Agency. Probation service staff are not civil servants and are employed by a probation board or trust. It is recognised that there is a difference in the operational need of both services. This is reflected in their terms and conditions and different operational structures. Terms and conditions are kept under review in developing pay modernisation strategies for both services.