The Ministry of Justice and HM Prison and Probation Service are committed to ensuring that prisoners can access high-quality education and skills provision that supports rehabilitation and reduces re-offending.

The contract does not require Education suppliers to provide routine information about redundancies, and as the majority of teaching staff are employed by external providers, it is not possible to provide the information requested.

The Ministry of Justice is committed to supporting prisoners’ rehabilitation through educational activities. The national funding for prison education has not been reduced; it increased by 3% this financial year. However, inflationary pressures across education services have affected the proportion of the overall budget that can be directed to Core Education contracts. This has resulted in a national reduction of around 20-25% in Core Education delivery. This reduction is not uniform across the estate, and variation is due to an updated education funding formula, which ensures prison allocations more accurately reflect prison function, capacity and learner need.

Governors continue to have flexibility to commission the education that best meets the needs of their population, and the wider educational offer, such as vocational training in industries settings, further and higher education, libraries, and Careers, Information, Advice and Guidance remain in place. We are also working closely with Governors to maximise attendance at education to ensure best value for money and the best outcomes for prisoners. We will monitor delivery and outcomes through contract management and a full evaluation of the new Prisoner Education Service.

Suppliers as part of their mobilisation activities have reviewed their organisational structures to ensure that these are responsive to the commissioned delivery requirements, which unfortunately has led to some redundancies. Suppliers are working to support their employees through this period of change. Specific figures relating to the number of redundancies are held by suppliers, rather than the Ministry of Justice.

The health and safety of prisoners and staff continues to be a top priority for His Majesty’s Prison & Probation Service. Following the temporary closure of HMP Dartmoor in August, we have been working with specialist radon experts to investigate and assess options to reduce levels of radon sufficiently to allow us to reopen the prison safely. While this process is ongoing, we are unable to provide an estimated timeline to return Dartmoor to its full operational capacity of around 680 places. We continue to work with Health and Safety experts to further our understanding of the impact that exposure levels could have on prisoners and staff.

If it is concluded that it is feasible and cost effective to return the prison to use, we will complete a full options assessment for the site, including the possibility of increasing the capacity of the prison from that at which it closed. In the meantime, we continue to work with HMP Dartmoor and the trade unions to manage the impact of the closure on staff. No staff have been made redundant.

We are in the process of redeploying staff, which for most will be to the neighbouring establishments HMP Exeter and HMP Channings Wood. We are ensuring they have access to the Department’s Employee Assistance Programme and are supported through the transition by their line managers.

Common Platform has been designed to provide the ability to view and share information across all stakeholder groups and provides a single location for the sharing of case information and notifying parties when new case material is available for them to view. It incorporates functionality to assist HMCTS staff in meeting the expectation that most decisions can be recorded at the time of hearing. This live ‘in-court’ recording of the outcomes of the court proceedings and the sharing of those outcomes with stakeholders such as the police are intended to protect the public and enable those authorities to respond immediately where for example a breach of an order occurs, or further offences are committed.

As part of the business case for the reform programme HMCTS conducted data gathering exercises in 2019 and 2020, where staff allocated their time by activity.  The impact of the changes introduced by the Crime Programme (including the Common Platform) on the amount of time required to perform activities was then estimated by staff with experience of performing the relevant roles and understood the likely impact of the changes. These estimates were used to estimate time savings and efficiencies. Now that the Common Platform is in use, we are working with staff to validate the estimates made and ensure the actual impact on roles is understood.

The impact of the Reform programme on permanent Civil Servants across all jurisdictions will be mitigated by managing and reducing the flexible resources in our workforce, and not recruiting to vacancies where possible. Few redundancies are anticipated, and we will redeploy permanent Civil Servants where possible and support our temporary employees to find roles with us as their contracts end. It has always been our intention to invest and support our workforce as part of the overall reform programme – this means continuing to develop our people and ensuring they have the skills they need to provide the best service possible. We will ensure that everyone has personal and professional support though organisational change.

The Ministry of Justice currently has no live voluntary exit schemes. Voluntary exit schemes are a commonly used workforce management process available to departments based on their specific workforce needs.

In line with the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 and the Model Contract for Special Advisers, a Special Adviser's appointment automatically terminates following a change of Administration; when their appointing Minister leaves office; or in the event of a General Election. The contracts of six Special Advisers in Ministry of Justice were terminated in the period in question. Severance pay must be paid back if a Special Adviser returns to government.

Applications for injunctions of this type are made to the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court. As at 22 March 2022 no injunction applications have been made by P&O Ferries seeking to remove dismissed staff from their vessels.

HM Courts and Tribunals Service does not hold the requested information.

HM Courts and Tribunals Service does not hold the information requested.

The information requested is not held centrally.

Costs directly attributable to each claim / case type are not separately identifiable as current financial systems do not allow us to link costs to claims / cases.

Employment tribunal cases can vary in nature and complexity and some can last over more than one year, particularly where collective disputes are involved. Claims in employment tribunals can be classified into either single or multiple claims. Multiple claims being where two or more people bring proceedings arising out of the same facts, usually against a common employer. Where claims are grouped as multiples, they are processed administratively and managed judicially together. Claims can be disposed of in a variety of ways, including being rejected either because they are out of time, or have no reasonable chance of success. A minority of cases are disposed of at a full hearing. There are therefore many ways an employment tribunal case can be interpreted.

As a result, it is not possible to provide costs for each of the last three years for employment tribunal cases brought in relation to the failure of companies to follow redundancy consultancy procedures required by law.

There have been restrictions on the delivery of face-to-face education due to Covid-19. In line with Cabinet Office guidance we have offered supplier relief to all suppliers commissioned through Core Education contracts or under the Prison Education Framework (PEF) and Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS), in both the adult prison estate and the youth custody estate. This has involved maintaining payments to providers to ensure that they have the capacity and capability to continue to deliver as the current restrictions are eased and return to full delivery as rapidly as possible.

Prison Education Framework (PEF) providers are contracted to provide a service and, so long as they provide this service, the staffing of this and how each PEF provider manages their staff is a matter for them and not the MoJ. We are not aware that any changes of staffing levels by any of the PEF providers has led to any reduction in the delivery of the service at any prison. Any erosion of service delivery, for whatever reason, will be challenged at all levels.

6 members of staff have left the Probate Service in the last 6 months.

Our new online service is making probate simpler and more convenient for bereaved people. Staffing is making increased and the digital service further improves to help reduce waiting times.

HMCTS has recognised the impact that the Courts Reform Programme will have on its workforce over the next few years. To support this change, HMCTS is providing a new style of career transition support. This means that employees will get access to career transition support services earlier. It has invested in an end to end career transition support service for all employees to access. The comprehensive support package has been designed to support employees to make a proactive choice in their future via an online portal – My Future Matters. The portal is a central point for employees to access support and practical career tools such as workshops, one-to-one coaching, on-site support sessions, and a personal career coach to assist them to develop their own transition plan. We are also committed to providing continuing employment within HMCTS for all staff impacted by Courts Reform, including priority access to suitable alternative roles within the organisation, and appropriate opportunities within the Ministry of Justice and wider civil service departments.

Due to the way in which the information is held by the pensions administrator, the average annual severance package for Band 3 to 5 officers taking Voluntary Exit or Voluntary Redundancy cannot be separately identified.

The Ministry of Justice, through Government Facility Services Limited (GFSL), has met with a wide range of suppliers as part of transitioning the HMPPS Facilities Management contracts. The MoJ took the decision early to manage suppliers to mitigate exposure and protect the supply chain, and have looked to support these suppliers wherever possible and have been in regular contact with the supply chain. Given the number of suppliers concerned, the Department doesn’t keep a record of which former Carillion suppliers it has met with. The MoJ is committed to working with SME’s and is already close to achieving the Government 2020 target.

To expedite the creation of GFSL a decision was taken to mobilise the MOJ infrastructure to ensure that at the point of Carillion entering Provisional Liquidation a process was in place to take on this work directly, mitigate continued exposure to the supply chain and ensure continuity of service. GFSL are currently working with the MOJ to review the interim process and move towards a revised operating model. The proposed approach will continue to see a reliance on the private sector and in particular SME providers.

The Ministry of Justice is aware of a limited number of redundancies made by SMEs, however it is not able to determine if these directly relate to goods or services provided by Carillion to the Department

Government Facility Services Limited (GFSL) is currently being supported by the Ministry of Justice in respect of contracts with the supply chain. Following Carillion entering Provisional Liquidation the majority of purchasing was undertaken via the MoJ to ensure stable supply chain arrangements remained in place. This will move across to GFSL later this year. GFSL intends to pay its suppliers promptly and will take steps to ensure compliance with the Prompt Payment Code.

The performance statistics of the MoJ in respect of paying invoices can be found via: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/procurement#our-payment-performance

The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost

The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

The information requested is not held centrally and could only be collated at disproportionate cost.

The number of band 3-5 prison officers who have taken voluntary early departure since 2009/10 can be found in table 11b in the latest HMPPS Workforce Statistics publication:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/her-majestys-prison-and-probation-service-workforce-quarterly-december-2017