Source · Select Committees · Justice Committee
Recommendation 17
17
Deferred
Formalise, publish, and monitor time out of cell data across all prisons.
Conclusion
HMPPS should formalise, standardise, and publish time out of cell data for every prison in England and Wales. It must closely monitor prisons that are failing to meet the statutory minimum and provide urgent support to enable compliance. Accurate and transparent reporting is essential to drive improvement and ensure accountability. (Recommendation, Paragraph 78)
Government response summary AI-generated
The government's response outlines specific improvements, roadmaps, and frameworks for Young Offender Institutions (YOIs) to enhance safety and time out of room. It does not commit to formalising, standardising, or publicly publishing time out of cell data for every prison in England and Wales.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government · verbatim extract
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.
Read the full response on Parliament ↗