Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of Prisoner Escort and Custody Services contractors’ performance.

During the period January to July 2026, of the 26 recorded instances of court time lost at Bristol Crown Court owing to the late delivery of a prisoner, one was attributable to Serco. The remaining 25 instances were attributable to a range of factors elsewhere in the criminal justice system, including issues arising within prisons, HM Courts and Tribunals Service and prisoner refusals.

HM Prison and Probation Service continually monitors Prisoner Escort and Custody Services (PECS) contractors through assured performance information and formal contract management arrangements, with service credits, fixed-cost remedies and improvement actions available where failures are attributable to the contractor. In addition, the ministerially-chaired Prisoner Delivery Oversight Board is co-ordinating work across criminal justice system partners to address the end-to-end causes of delay.

In the year ending 30 June 2026, contractors escorted approximately 343,000 prisoners to court. Of around 6,600 reported delays involving prisoners transported by PECS, 504 were attributable to contractor performance, with the majority arising from wider criminal justice system factors. Overall contractor performance remains strong and, where standards are not met, financial deductions, improvement plans and other contractual remedies are applied.

The Department holds monthly performance information for Prisoner Escort and Custody Services contractors covering the period since the current contracts commenced in September 2020. This includes data on prisoner movements between police stations, courts and prisons to monitor and measure overall PECS supplier service delivery and performance against Contract Delivery Indicators. The information is used to monitor contractual compliance and inform the application of improvement plans, financial deductions and other contractual remedies where required.

Previously published data show that PECS supplier-attributable delays reduced from 0.16% of court productions in 2023 to 0.08% in both 2024 and 2025. In 2025, PECS suppliers delivered prisoners to court on time in 99.91% of cases, compared with an overall criminal justice system timely delivery to court rate of 98.19%.