Dear Ms Bickley

Freedom of Information Request

Thank you for your email of 30 September 2009 in which you asked for the following information from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ):

“How many serving prison officers in the Prison Service, have been convicted of:

1) Fraud and deception related offences,

2) Violent offences including assault,

3) Drug related offences,

4) Sexual offences,

5) Racial, religious or homophobic offences,

6) Theft

in the West Midlands, East Midlands and London Areas”

Your request has been passed to me because I have responsibility for answering requests which relate to staff conduct and discipline matters within the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) and has been handled under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).

I am sorry to inform you that in order for the Ministry of Justice to answer your entire request for information, the cost limit for Freedom of Information requests would be exceeded. Section 12 of the FOIA makes provision for public authorities to refuse requests for information where the cost of dealing with them would exceed the appropriate limit, which for central government is set at £600. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 3.5 working days in determining whether the Department holds the information, locating, retrieving and extracting the information.

In the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) there is no formal requirement to maintain a central database of staff with criminal convictions. Instead, information about criminal convictions may be recorded on an employee's personal file. There are a total of 36 public sector Prison Service establishments within the West Midlands, East Midlands and London geographical areas. Centrally held information indicates that there were 6272 serving prison officers working in these three geographical areas at the end of September 2009. In order to answer your request for information, we would have to recall and review the personal files for each of these members of staff, research the information and retrieve details of all criminal convictions. This would exceed the appropriate limit set out for central government, as explained previously. Although your request would at present be too costly to answer, if you refine it so that it falls under the cost limit we will consider it further. You may wish to consider narrowing the scope of your request to a specific timeframe and a particular establishment for example.

It may be helpful if I explain that all staff working in the public sector Prison Service are exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act and are asked to provide details about criminal convictions, cautions and reprimands (including those that are spent) on their application or vetting form. Previous criminal convictions, including those leading to a prison sentence or formal caution, are not an automatic disbar to employment and each case is considered on its individual merits. Information obtained during the recruitment and vetting processes for successful applicants would be recorded on the individual's personal file.

I should also explain, in relation to any future requests, that responsibility for all aspects of the disciplinary process in NOMS is devolved to management at a local level. All staff are required to notify their line management if they are convicted of a criminal offence whilst in service and, depending on the circumstances of the case, disciplinary proceedings may be instigated. There is no requirement to formally notify NOMS Headquarters when a member of staff receives a criminal conviction. Instead, establishments are required to notify Headquarters once the outcome of the internal disciplinary proceedings has been determined.

Information relating to the outcome of formal disciplinary cases at public sector prisons is collected centrally in order to aid consistency in decision-making, rather than as a complete record of all disciplinary cases. Whilst the central databases contain information about prison officers who have received formal disciplinary penalties following receipt of criminal convictions, the reasons for the conviction are not reported in every case.

All NOMS staff are expected to meet high standards of professional and personal conduct. If staff are convicted of serious criminal convictions, such as those included in your request, then depending on the individual circumstances of the case, this would fall under the category of gross misconduct and would invariably lead to their summary dismissal from Service without the need for a full disciplinary hearing.

On an exceptional basis, outside of the Act I am able to provide you with centrally held disciplinary information for serving prison officers who have been awarded disciplinary penalties, short of dismissal, following receipt of criminal convictions or police cautions. The information contained within the table below has been extracted from the central discipline databases which are subject to the normal inaccuracies associated with any large scale reporting system. The information covers the period 1 October 2006 through 30 September 2009 and only includes cases involving officers employed within the West Midlands, East Midlands and London geographical areas. Cases that are ongoing or subject to an internal appeal have been excluded from the table. I hope you will find this helpful.

Table: Prison Officers¹ disciplined² for receipt of criminal convictions/police cautions

(Centrally held information for West Midlands, East Midlands and London areas only)

¹ This includes staff in the Officer, Senior Officer and Principle Officer grades.

² Penalties include oral warnings, written warnings, final written warnings, removal from the field of promotion and downgrading or a combination of the aforementioned awards. Cases resulting in dismissal from the Service have been excluded from this information.

I am sorry that on this occasion we have not been able to provide you with the information you have requested. As part of our obligations under the FOIA, the Ministry of Justice has an independent review process. If you are dissatisfied with this decision, you may write to request an internal review. The internal review will be carried out by someone who did not make the original decision, and they will re-assess how the Department handled the original request.

If you wish to request an internal review, please write or send an email to the Data Access and Compliance Unit within two months of the date of this letter, at the following address:

Data Access and Compliance Unit

Information Directorate

Ministry of Justice

6^th Floor, Zone B

Postal Point 6.25

102 Petty France

London

SW1H 9AJ

e-mail: [email address]

If you remain dissatisfied after an internal review decision, you have the right to apply to the Information Commissioner's Office under Section 50 of the FOIA. You can contact the Information Commissioner's Office at the following address:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Internet: https://www.ico.gov.uk/Global/contact_us.aspx

Yours sincerely

Tracy Phelan

NOMS HR Directorate

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