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'Actual costs of Escort and Bedwatch expenditure by prison'.
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National Offender Management Service Financial Control and Accountancy Room 204 2nd Floor Abell House John Islip Street London SW1P 4LH
Direct Tel: 0207 217 5206 Facsimile: 0207 217 5163
E-mail Enquiries [email address] [email address]
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Mr/Ms G Lawrence
By email to:
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30 July 2009 |
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Our Ref: FOI/60339/09/PB |
Dear Sir or Madam
SUBJECT: Freedom of Information Request
Thank you for your email dated 3 July 2009, in which you asked the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) for the following information:
Please will you send me in Excel spreadsheet format, the actual Escort and Bedwatch costs reimbursed to each prison during the last financial year 2008/2009.
Your request has been handled under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA). The answer has been provided by the National Offender Management Service, an Executive Agency of the MoJ.
The question asks for the actual Escort and Bedwatch costs reimbursed to each prison. However, the charging policy agreed by HM Prison Service and the Department of Health was not to reimburse actual costs incurred by prisons but rather to recover costs by raising monthly charges to the Primary Care Trust (PCT) based on a fixed overhead amount plus an hourly rate applied to the duration of the visit i.e. the Tariff.
Whilst the charges raised to PCTs by prisons should broadly cover the cost of prison officers undertaking these duties, prisons have not been asked to match costs to the charges raised to PCTs because to do so would not add any value.
The figures in the attached spreadsheet are for the financial year 2008/09. They are for public sector prisons only and show total income received by each prison from raising charges to PCTs for Escorts and Bedwatches undertaken by prison officers that have been commissioned by their local PCT. With regard to Brixton prison and Dover Immigration Removal Centre, the following should be noted:
Brixton prison contracted out its healthcare to a company from May 2008 and the £71,998.38 in the spreadsheet only relates to the income received from the PCT before the service was contracted out. Total income for the year from the company and the PCT was £405,324.
Dover is an Immigration Removal Centre and not a prison. Although Dover staff do not undertake escort and bedwatch duties for immigration detainees, they do undertake them for other prisons in nearby areas and the £2,408.10 relates to this work.
I understand that you have asked a similar question to the Department of Health and this reply has been agreed with that Department.
As part of our obligations under the Freedom of Information Act, the Ministry of Justice has an independent review process. If an individual is dissatisfied with a response they may request an independent internal review of our handling of a request. A request for internal review should be made in writing in the next 40 working days quoting the above reference number and should be addressed to:
Data Access and Compliance Unit, Information Directorate, Ministry of Justice,
Postal point 6.25
6th Floor Zone B,
102 Petty France,
London
SW1H 9AJ.
During the independent review the department's handling of information request is reassessed by staff not involved in providing the original response. If the matter remains unresolved after an internal review there is a right to apply to the Information Commissioner for a decision as established by section 50 of the FOIA.
The address is:
Information Commissioner's Office,
Wycliffe House,
Water Lane,
Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF.
Yours faithfully
Peter Bellerby
National Offender Management Service
Financial Control and Accountancy
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