North Sea Camp

Community offender managers often take a long time to update their part of OASys and complete the paperwork to enable prisoners to sit ROTL boards. This can mean prisoners having to postpone Parole Board hearings as they have not done the required ROTLs and means prisoners may spend more time in prison than strictly necessary. Timescales for return of paperwork would be helpful.

Every effort is made to obtain the necessary documents so Release on Temporary Licence (ROTL) boards can be held promptly, and Parole Board hearings are not postponed. Return of paperwork reminders are regularly sent to COMs and escalated to the Head of Offender Management five weeks prior to the ROTL Board. If there is further delay, where the prisoner has been allocated to a COM and responsibility transferred from the Prison Offender Manager, matters are escalated through the local probation senior management.

The situation surrounding imprisonment for public protection (IPP) prisoners, whilst well handled by the establishment, must be resolved to end the insecurity of this category of prisoner. The Board is disaapointed by the Government’s rejection of the Justice Select Committee’s recommemdation of a resentencing exercise.

The quality of some of the accommodation is poor and the space allocated to prisoners sharing rooms is not ideal. It was good to see the two-storey aging accommodation units decommissioned, however the Board is concerned that, as yet, there is no plan to replace them.

HMPPS is considering options for longer-term replacement of the decommissioned Harrison and Llewelyn modular units, and is undertaking a strategic review at HMP North Sea Camp as part of the agency’s long-term estates strategy. This is looking at how the reduction in capacity might be reversed to reduce overcrowding, whilst also taking into account the risks of flooding at the site.

Funding needs to be allocated to convert the current dormitories to smaller rooms so that when HMP North Sea Camp is at full capacity, no prisoners will have to share with more than one other person.

Regarding prisoners sharing dormitories, it is recognised that the rooms are not large enough for two tables, but prisoners are not constrained to their rooms and the regime is structured so that comparatively little time is spent indoors. Work activities encourage people to make the most of the 300 acres of this resettlement establishment. At this time there is no budget allocated to converting the dormitories to smaller rooms. A Small-Scale Investments team are commissioning a feasibility study on the options available to refurbish various buildings. This includes erecting partition walls in three dormitory rooms located in South Units 1 and 2 to create seven double-occupancy rooms.

The IMB is concerned by the time taken to complete routine maintenance jobs, and the issues around the transfer of prisoners’ property. These are issues that are provided by contracted out services and the Board is concerned that contract failures do not result in penalties to encourage compliance.

It is acknowledged that the performance of facilities management (FM) has sometimes fallen below expectations. Performance is measured through Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), tracking results periodically and applying financial penalties where necessary. The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) Property Directorate will continue to work with the FM provider to improve reactive maintenance.

There continues to be a problem with a prisoner’s property not always arriving in its entirety on the completion of transfer. Prisoners face a long wait for their property to come and often it does not arrive at all.

The newly published Prisoners’ Property Policy Framework came into effect on 5 September 2022 and replaces Prison Service Instruction 12/2011 - Prisoners’ Property. The Framework is the result of extensive consultation, including with the IMB. It has been designed with procedural justice at its core, and aims to ensure consistency and fairness and enhance prisoners’ satisfaction with processes and outcomes. Given the nature of property, and the movement of prisoners between establishments, the Framework looks to provide greater direction and standardisation on a national basis. It strengthens processes in relation to the main problem areas identified by IMBs and staff including the handling of valuable property, managing cell clearances, compliance with volumetric control and forwarding on excess property following a prisoner’s transfer.

Continue to provide support to the IPP populaton.

Continue to work on the integration of the recategorised prisoners on arrival at North Sea Camp.

Continue to support the improvements within the Offender Managenent Unit (OMU).