Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Written Statement of 21 July 2020, Official Report, HCWS408, Government response to the Prison Service Pay Review Body recommendations 20/21, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the (a) scope and (b) timeframe of the workplace reforms for prison officers.
It was announced in the Written Ministerial Statement made on 21 July that we would be considering the PSPRBs recommendation 3 (recommended with effect from September) over more time. As part of this, we intend to open discussions with recognised trade unions on the implications of the recommendation, and how any such uplift in pay could be made affordable, mutually beneficial, and offer value for money for tax payer.
Such discussions with trade unions remain live have not concluded, and it would therefore not be appropriate to discuss publicly at this time.
We will carefully consider any points raised by unions and hope to reach an agreement that both aligns with the broader public-sector workforce agenda while best benefitting all. We will return to this recommendation later in the year.