Source · Select Committees · Justice Committee
Recommendation 11
11
Deferred
Implement recommendations to increase Governor autonomy, reduce turnover, and clarify rationale for parity.
Recommendation
The Government should update the Committee on the findings of its review into Governor autonomy, including whether it will implement the Lords Home Affairs and Justice Committee’s recommendations on staffing, budgeting, and regime design. It should also set out a clear plan for how it plans to reduce Governor turnover and support Governors to lead their establishments with greater consistency and authority. As part of this plan, the Government should consider awarding the same level of autonomy to public sector Governors, as is afforded to private sector Governors. If it is decided that they should not, the Government must provide their rationale for this decision. (Recommendation, Paragraph 57)
Government Response Summary
The government's response explains its decision to focus on measuring 'purposeful activity' for prisoners, detailing the rollout of a new Digital Prisons Service Activities and Appointments tool to improve data quality, thereby deflecting from the recommendation on Governor autonomy, turnover, and support.
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government
Deferred
49. HMPPS has considered how a time-based metric could work, and has concluded that it would be challenging due to a number of operational concerns, such as the nature of the metrics recorded, and the resource demands it could place on staff. 50. In addition, we think it is more important to understand the time being spent by prisoners in rehabilitative activities. Therefore, we have decided that the more important metric to measure is the amount of time prisoners spend in purposeful activity. 51. HMPPS is committed to improving data quality and recording in this space and has taken a number of steps to further improve the purposeful activity metric. In particular, the Digital Prisons Service Activities and Appointments tool is in the process of being rolled out across the estate, and provides improved functionality for prisons, and streamlines data reporting, supporting improved data quality. By 2026/27, the majority of public sector closed prisons will use this function, and it will be further rolled out to the rest of the adult and youth estate the following year. 52. Prison Performance Ratings allow HMPPS to identify those prisons which are struggling with their delivery offer, including meeting statutory minimums. These establishments can then be supported with targeted specialist support through regional prison improvement teams.