Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many staff of each grade were available for detached duty arrangements in each month since January 2014.

The deployment of staff between prisons on detached duty is a regular and normal part of prison resourcing. It allows staff to be allocated from prisons with the capacity to provide them, to those where additional staffing is required. On average over the six month period (January to June 2014), less than 1% of Band 3 officers were provided on detached duty. A large proportion of the capacity is typically available from prisons that are in the process of closure or going through a re-role. This process temporarily releases a number of officers who are not supplied for specific occasions but are sent and received on a shift pattern throughout the week.

The number of staff available for detached duty at any one time is a matter for operational judgement and takes account of overall staff numbers, levels of sickness, prisoner numbers and the regime and security requirements.

The average weekly provision of band 3 prison officers, that were received as part of the nationally co-ordinated detached duty scheme, are shown in the tables below for April to June 2014. For information on the three months January to March I refer the Hon. Member to the reply given to him on 12 June 2014, Official Report, columns 316W to 318W. The nationally co-ordinated scheme relates to Band 3 Prison Officers only. Detached duty arrangements for more senior staff are managed locally and are not included in the information presented, as they are not recorded centrally.

Table: Average weekly provision of Band 3 Prison Officers on detached duty to prisons in England & Wales, April - June 2014

We have maintained our policy of rounding figures to the nearest 10 in line with the department’s policy for presenting staffing data. The data is only accurate to this level because late updating of data within HR systems means that the unrounded figures recorded for a specific date have a margin of error around them. Totals are formed from unrounded parts prior to rounding. For this reason, rounded totals may not equal the sum of their rounded parts.

Table: List of prisons receiving staff on detached duty by average weekly full-time equivalent provision and grade, April - June 2014

Using centrally held financial records it is not possible, without incurring disproportionate cost, to disaggregate the costs of accommodation and subsistence claimed for detached duty from other expenses claimed by staff.