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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2014-06-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people are currently employed in prisons to calculate the release date of prisoners.

Jeremy Wright

The number of staff employed in prisons specifically for the purpose of calculating release dates for prisoners is not held on central systems. To obtain the information would involve collecting data from every establishment, which would entail disproportionate cost.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2014-06-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average cost per (a) prison place and (b) prisoner in each category of prison was in the latest period for which figures are available.

Jeremy Wright

The Department routinely publishes average costs per prisoner and prison place, based on actual net resource expenditure for each private and public sector prison and in summary form for the whole of the prison estate in England and Wales on an annual basis after the end of each financial year. This includes a breakdown of these costs by prison category and individual prison within each category, and separately by prisoner gender.

The most recently published figures are for financial year 2012-13 which give an average annual Overall cost per place of £36,808 and average annual Overall cost per prisoner of £34,766. An average annual cost per male prisoner of £34,306 and £44,746 per female prisoner, based on Overall resource costs, is also published.

The information for financial year 2012-13 is available in the Cost per Place and Prisoner and Supplementary Information files on the Department’s website at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/prison-and-probation-trusts-performance-statistics-201213

Figures for 2013-14 will be published alongside the Management Information Addendums to the NOMS Annual Report and Accounts in October 2014.

Continuing to reduce prison unit costs is one of the key targets for the Department. Between 2009/10 and 2012/13 prison unit costs (based on Overall prison costs) have reduced in real terms by 16% per place and 13% per prisoner.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2014-06-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the ratio of prison officers to inmates in prisons in England and Wales was, by category of prison, in each of the last five years.

Andrew Selous

Staffing levels are being reviewed prison by prison as part of a ‘benchmarking approach’. Benchmarking has been agreed with the unions and the NAO has commented that the wider strategy for the prison estate is the most coherent and comprehensive for many years. It delivers efficiencies while ensuring that public sector prisons operate safely, decently and securely. Benchmarking optimises the skills of staff by introducing new ways of working and puts all prison officers in prisoner facing roles.

The information requested has been placed in the library and extends the table provided to the honourable member for Tooting on 4 Mar 2014, Official Report, 805W. The tables include both public and private sector establishments. Figures are not however comparable across public and private sector establishments. There is no comparison within Private Sector Prisons for Prison Officer Specialists. Functions carried out by badged officers vary, particularly across private prisons, relating to whether functions are civilianised, contracted out, or performed by badged officers.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2014-06-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the ratio of prison officers to inmates in prison in England and Wales was, by prison establishment, in each of the last five years.

Andrew Selous

Staffing levels are being reviewed prison by prison as part of a ‘benchmarking approach’. Benchmarking has been agreed with the unions and the NAO has commented that the wider strategy for the prison estate is the most coherent and comprehensive for many years. It delivers efficiencies while ensuring that public sector prisons operate safely, decently and securely. Benchmarking optimises the skills of staff by introducing new ways of working and puts all prison officers in prisoner facing roles.

The information requested has been placed in the library and extends the table provided to the honourable member for Tooting on 4 Mar 2014, Official Report, 805W. The tables include both public and private sector establishments. Figures are not however comparable across public and private sector establishments. There is no comparison within Private Sector Prisons for Prison Officer Specialists. Functions carried out by badged officers vary, particularly across private prisons, relating to whether functions are civilianised, contracted out, or performed by badged officers.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2014-06-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many safety officers are employed by probation trusts to help (a) female and (b) male victims of domestic violence.

Jeremy Wright

The information requested is not available as it was not collected centrally from the probation trusts. Probation trusts ceased to provide probation services from midnight on 31^st May 2014.

National Probation Service (NPS) and Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) commenced operations on 1^st June 2014.

Information on staffing levels at Probation Trust level was published in the Quarterly Probation Service Workforce Information reports. The link to the reports on GOV.UK is provided below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/probation-service-workforce-quarterly-reports

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2014-06-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many prisoners have completed university degrees inside prison in each of the last 10 years; and what the cost to the public purse was of that education.

Matthew Hancock

Most prisoners who study higher education (HE) in custody do so through the Open University (OU). The table below shows the number of prisoners in England who have completed OU degrees whilst in prison from academic year 2003/04. Prior to September 2012, the costs of prisoners’ tuition were met from public funds in an arrangement that broadly mirrored the grant arrangements for other part-time HE students. The OU’s additional costs for delivering in custody are met through a grant from the Department. We do not have information on the public funding for these specific learners. From September 2012, prisoners have been required to take out, and then repay, tuition fee loans in the same way as other learners.

Number of prisoners completing Open University degrees in prisons from 2003/04

Award Year (academic year)	Total number of prisoners
2003/04	4
2004/05	10
2005/06	14
2006/07	10
2007/08	11
2008/09	22
2009/10	19
2010/11	23
2011/12	26
2012/13	16
Total	155
England only
Information supplied by the Open University

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