Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many contractual improvement notices have been issued at each private prison in each of the last 10 years.

Over the last 10 years, the following formal contractual notices have been issued at the following private prisons.

HMP Birmingham (operated by G4S)

HMP Birmingham – Incident Reporting (Improvement Notice Issued August 2016, Closed January 2017 due to sufficient improvements in performance being made)

HMP Birmingham – Release in Error (Improvement Notice Issued August 2016, Closed January 2017 due to sufficient improvements in performance being made)

HMP Birmingham - Levels of Violence, reduced purposeful activity, cleanliness (Improvement Notice issued March 2018)

HMP Birmingham – ACCT (Assessment, Care in Custody, Teamwork) (Improvement Notice issued March 2018)

HMP Birmingham – Levels of Violence, reduced purposeful activity, cleanliness, (Outstanding Issues Notice issued June 2018, not closed, superseded by Step In)

HMP Birmingham – ACCT (Assessment, Care in Custody, Teamwork) ( Outstanding Issues Notice issued August 2018, not closed, superseded by Step In)

HMP & YOI Doncaster (operated by Serco)

HMP & YOI Doncaster – Insufficient Progress against HMIP Recommendations, Increase in Levels of Violence and Staffing Levels (Improvement Notice Issued – March 2015)

HMP & YOI Doncaster – Insufficient Progress against HMIP Recommendations, Increase in Levels of Violence and Staffing Levels (Outstanding Issues Notice Issued – July 2015)

HMP & YOI Doncaster – Insufficient Progress against HMIP Recommendations, Increase in Levels of Violence and Staffing Levels (Rectification Notice Issued 12^th – August 2015)

Rectification Closed due to sufficient improvements in performance being made in July 2017.

HMP Northumberland (operated by Sodexo)

HMP Northumberland – Insufficient performance against the Performance Threshold for Prisoner Working Hours (Improvement Notice Issued - June 2015)

Improvement Notice Closed due to sufficient improvements in performance being made in December 2016.

HMP Oakwood (operated by G4S)

HMP Oakwood – Areas of Reduced performance - Cleanliness, MDT, Purposeful Activity, Searching, Staffing Numbers - (Improvement Notice Issued - February 2012)

Improvement Notice closed due to sufficient improvements in performance being made in July 2013.

HMP Peterborough (operated by Sodexo)

HMP Peterborough – Healthcare Provision (Rectification Notice issued – 17^th August 2018)

Rectification closed due to sufficient improvements in performance being made in January 2019

HMP Rye Hill (Operated by G4S)

HMP Rye Hill – (i) Shortfall in staffing levels and (ii) inadequate paperwork plus non-compliance to PSO1700 (Management of Disruptive Prisoners) in operation of the Care and Separation Unit (Rectification Notice issued in March 2010).

HMP Rye Hill – Rectification Notice for above formally closed due to sufficient improvements in performance being made in December 2010.

HMP Rye Hill – Continued water ingress into Education Block (Corrective Action Notice Issued - September 2016)

HMP Rye Hill – Corrective Action Notice formally closed due to sufficient improvements in performance being made in January 2017).

Every privately contracted prison is robustly scrutinised by an on-site Prison Service Controller who monitors their performance, including staffing levels. Some privately run prisons are among the best across the estate, and we are able to take rapid action if standards do not meet contractual levels, and in such circumstances remedies are applied.

For publicly run prisons we have a Performance and Assurance Framework, which ensures that where a prisons performance falls below a certain level improvement measures can be put in place.