Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 17 May 2019 to Question 251425 on Prisons: Contracts, what increases were made to staffing levels at HMP Doncaster to enable the closure of the Rectification Notice in July 2017.

Onley Prison Services Limited (OPSL) was awarded a contract to design, manage, finance and construct HMP Rye Hill in 1999 following a fair and open competition process. OPSL appointed G4S as its operating subcontractor to provide the custodial service element on their behalf.

Running a safe and secure prison is the priority for OPSL, G4S and the MoJ, but as with all privately managed prisons, the MoJ requires its contractors to employ sufficient levels of staff to meet their contractual obligations.

The MoJ issued performance related Contract Notices to OPSL as formal notification of specific concerns of performance falling below expected standards. These can be related to performance delivery indicators and/or in response to other concerns about custodial service delivery.

A Rectification Notice was issued because the MoJ was concerned that the numbers of staff employed to deliver the custodial service were reaching a level where OPSL would be under pressure to meet their contractual obligations and meet their performance delivery indicators. The number of staff employed for private prisons is not published due to commercial sensitivity.

Serco was awarded the contract to manage HMP Doncaster in 2011 following a fair and open competition process.

Performance related Contract Notices are issued as formal notification to the contractor where the MoJ identifies specific areas of concern that performance has fallen below expected standards. These can be related to performance delivery indicators and/or in response to other specific concerns about custodial service delivery.

Two HMIP inspections, in March 2014 and October 2015, found that Doncaster was a less respectful institution and a less safe prison than it had been in 2010. The MoJ was concerned that Serco was making insufficient progress in improving its performance to address the shortfalls highlighted by HMIP and that this was, in part, due to their lack of consistency in providing sufficient levels of staff.