Prison Escort and Bedwatch Costs by prison and PCT

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Our ref: DE00000419019
3rd July 2009
Dear G Lawrence,
Thank you for your email of 5th June to the Department of Health
requesting, under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, information on
Escort and Bedwatch budgets allocated to, reimbursed to, or spent by
individual prisons and the PCT responsible for that prison, for the
current and last financial year.
Please find attached in an Excel spreadsheet the information the
Department holds. The Department does not hold the information by
individual prison but only by PCT. Only those Trusts which provide these
services have been included on the spreadsheet.
I hope you find the attached information helpful. Please remember to quote
the reference number above in any future communications.
If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the
right to ask for an internal review. Internal review requests should be
submitted within two months of the date of receipt of the response to your
original letter and should be addressed to:

Head of the Freedom of Information Team
Department of Health
Room 317
Richmond House
79 Whitehall
London
SW1A 2NS

Email: [1][email address]
If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you may apply
directly to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) for a decision.
Generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the
complaints procedure provided by the Department. The ICO can be contacted
at:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Yours sincerely,
Pauline Agboke
Senior FOI Manager
Freedom of Information Team

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Our ref: DE00000427533

3 August 2009

Dear G Lawrence,

Thank you for your email of 6 July to the Department of Health requesting,
under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, further information in
relation to the response sent to you, our ref: DE00000419019. Your further
query was:

May I please now ask for the actual costs reimbursed under the
Escort and Bedwatch heading by each PCT. This is not the same as the
allocated budget as PCTs reimburse the actual costs and are not limited to
reimbursing only up to the budget.
The charging policy agreed by HM Prison Service and Department of Health
was not to reimburse actual costs incurred by prisons but rather to
recover costs by raising monthly charges to the 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.
The figures on the attached spreadsheet 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 NHS Primary
Care Trust.

I hope this is helpful, if you have any queries about this response,
please contact me. Please remember to quote the reference number above in
any future communications.

If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the
right to ask for an internal review. Internal review requests should be
submitted within two months of the date of receipt of the response to your
original letter and should be addressed to:

Head of the Freedom of Information Team
Department of Health
Room 317
Richmond House
79 Whitehall,
London
SW1A 2NS

Email: [email address]

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you may apply
directly to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) for a decision.
Generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the
complaints procedure provided by the Department. The ICO can be contacted
at:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Yours sincerely,

Pauline Agboke
Senior FOI Manager
Freedom of Information

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Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.