The Review Body makes recommendations for the pay arrangements of prison governors, other operational managers, prison officers and support grades in England and Wales. This is their 4th report which contains recommendations applicable from 1 April 2005, including that existing rates of locality payment remain in force, to be kept under review; an increase in basic pay of 2.5 per cent for staff generally, with the exception of senior officers who should receive an increase of 3.0 per cent in improve their relative position within the pay structure.
The report's key recommendation is for an increase in basic pay for all grades of £425 or 1.6 per cent, whichever is the greater. This, combined with some other changes for operational managers, two additional rates of locality pay, and a 1.6 per cent increase in all allowances except specialist, will lead to an increase in the pay bill of £27 million or 2.5 per cent. The Review Body has long considered the current pay system as outmoded and in urgent need of reform, and has identified particular aspects that require attention: the length of pay ranges; performance or competence based pay progression; rationalization of the middle management grading structure; and pay arrangements for governing governors (in charge of establishments) and senior operational managers. So it welcomes some progress towards pay reform, linked to a multi-year deal between the Prison Service Agency and the Prison Officers' Association, but regrets that the negotiations had stalled at the end of 2005. It is vital that the negotiations resume, and that proposals for a new pay and grading structure, underpinned by a robust job evaluation system, are available in time for the 2007 report.
The Committee's report examines the Government's Pre-Budget Report 2005 (Cm. 6701, ISBN 0101670125) published in December 2005. Issues discussed include: the state of the economy (including the UK Presidency of the G8, UK economic growth estimates for 2006 and beyond, and consumer spending) and public finance matters; as well as issues relating to taxation and pensions. Recommendations made include that the Treasury should give at least four weeks notice of the date of the Pre-Budget Report in order to enable sufficient parliamentary scrutiny, and if this target is not met, the Treasury should give an account of the reasons why.
The Committee undertook this inquiry to address concerns about the imprisonment of Welsh prisoners outside Wales. At present there are only four prisons in Wales, all in the South, and there is little provision for juveniles and no prisons for women. The overcrowding means that Welsh prisoners have a reduced chance of serving their sentence near home and reduces the chances of successful resettlement on release. The Committee believe there should be new prison places in North Wales, separate provision for young offenders and a new approach to women prisoners along the lines suggested by Baroness Corston. The report also address concerns about support services for mental illness amongst prisoners, the amount of Welsh language provision and education services.
This report by the Review Body on Senior Salaries makes 34 recommendations for parliamentary pay arrangements and allowances for 2007, covering both the House of Commons and House of Lords. Recommendations include: (i) that for 2007 the salaries of MPs be increased by a further 1.9% of the salary payable from 1 November 2006, taking the new salary to £61,820, with the increase backdated to 1 April 2007; that the annual uprating take place on 1 April each year, beginning April 2008; that for 3 years, beginning in April 2008, MPs salaries be increased by £650 a year and that future reviews of parliamentary pay, pensions and expenditure take place at four-yearly intervals; that from 1 April 2007 Ministers in the House of Lords receive the same pecentage increase in their salaries as Ministers of the same rank in the Commons; that the National Audit Office should audit the expenses of a representative sample of MPs each year; that partners of MPs who are named in the Parliamentary Contributory Pension Fund as sole beneficiaries should be entitled to the same travel arrangements available to spouses and civil partners; that the London Supplement be increased to £3,500, and henceforth adjusted in line with the Public Sector Average Earnings.
Supply estimates are the means by which the Government seeks from Parliament sufficient funds and parliamentary authority for the bulk of departmental expenditure each year. In the course of the year the Government may need to ask Parliament for additional resources and/or cash. This volume contains 32 supplementary estimates and one new estimate.
Published in association with Great Britains Cabinet Office, the Civil Service Yearbook is a one-stop reference tool for anybody working in, dealing with, or interested in any aspect of Great Britains Civil Service. It provides full details of all central and devolved government, their contact details, responsibilities and key staff; comprehensive details of all executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies and their affiliations; details of a wide range of related organizations, including museums, galleries, libraries, and research establishments; and improved research aids to make sure that this information is even more accessible than before.
This report calls for a Top Pay Commission to 'name and shame' public sector organisations that pay excessive salaries to their top officials. The Commission would produce principles and benchmarks to be followed by pay setters and would be able to launch investigations where these were breached. PASC believes a Top Pay Commission would ensure greater coherence to the setting of top pay across the public sector. PASC concludes that massive increases in private sector executive salaries over the last ten years have led to smaller, but sometimes still very large, increases at the top of the public sector. This 'contagion effect' has meant that the highest salaries in both sectors have increased much faster than average earnings. PASC also identified a number of weaknesses with current arrangements for setting pay in the public sector. These include variable levels of transparency, tensions between devolved and centralised pay setting systems, a perception that some public servants have been rewarded for failure and a tendency for some parts of the public sector to compete against others for a small number of experienced candidates, rather than growing talent internally. Some of the Committee's other key recommendations include: a call for better human resource management across the public sector, to ensure talent is promoted from within and failure is not rewarded; recommendations that would lead to publication of salaries and bonuses across the public sector more in line with the requirements placed on listed companies; and a proposal to ensure all public sector executive reward packages are drawn up either by independent bodies or remuneration committees with a majority of independent members
The Parole Board for England and Wales is an independent body that makes decisions on the release of prisoners. The Board works alongside the HM Prison Service and the probation service when deciding on the release of offenders from custody. In the 2006-07 period the Board handled 25,000 cases, a 31 per cent increase from the 2005-06 period. This NAO report, examines the following areas in how the Board works, including: whether the members of the Board are well equipped to make decisions; whether the Board manages its workload in a timely and efficient way; whether the Board has adequate processes for reviewing its performance and learning lessons. The NAO has set out a number of recommendations, including: the Ministry of Justice should, alongside the Parole Board, examine the composition of the Board's membership to consider whether is can be more representative; that the Board should continue to monitor closely the amount of time members are making available for casework; that the Board should introduce a template to record reasons for all parole decisions; that the Ministry of Justice needs to produce more realistic workload forecasts and also introduce a target which covers the entire process of providing information and holding hearings for indeterminate sentenced prisoners (sentences given to prisoners for public protection and life sentences); that the Board should review random samples of some completed cases to assess the quality of the reasons for the decision taken.
The Public Administration Select Committee (PASC) has concluded a year-long inquiry into the future of the Civil Service with only one recommendation: that Parliament should establish a Joint Committee of both Houses to sit as a Commission on the future of the Civil Service. It should be constituted within the next few months and report before the end of the Parliament with a comprehensive change programme for Whitehall with a timetable to be implemented over the lifetime of the next Parliament. The Report considers the increased tensions between ministers and officials which have become widely reported, and places the problems in Whitehall in a wider context of a Civil Service built on the Northcote-Trevelyan settlement established in 1853 and the Haldane principles of ministerial accountability set out in 1919. The government's Civil Service Reform Plan lacks strategic coherence and clear leadership from a united team of ministers and officials. The Northcote-Trevelyan Civil Service remains the most effective way of supporting the democratically elected Government and future administrations in the UK. Divided leadership and confused accountabilities in Whitehall have led to problems: a low level of engagement amongst civil servants in some departments and agencies, and a general lack of trust and openness; the Civil Service exhibits the key characteristics of a failing organisation with the leadership are in denial about the scale of the challenge they face. There is a persistent lack of key skills and capabilities across Whitehall and an unacceptably high level of churn of lead officials, which is incompatible with good government.
Royal assent, 17th July 2012. An Act to authorise the use of resources for the year ending with 31 March 2013; to authorise both the issue of sums out of the Consolidated Fund and the application of income for that year; and to appropriate the supply authorised for that year by this Act and by the Supply and Appropriation (Anticipation and Adjustments) Act 2012
Royal assent, 26 March 2013. An Act to authorise the use of resources for the years ending with 31 March 2010, 31 March 2011, 31 March 2012, 31 March 2013 and 31 March 2014; to authorise the issue of sums out of the Consolidated Fund for the years ending with 31 March 2013 and 31 March 2014; and to appropriate the supply authorised by this Act for the years ending with 31 March 2010, 31 March 2011, 31 March 2012 and 31 March 2013
Royal assent, 13 March 2014. An Act to authorise the use of resources for the years ending with 31 March 2008, 31 March 2009, 31 March 2010, 31 March 2011, 31 March 2012, 31 March 2013, 31 March 2014 and 31 March 2015; to authorise the issue of sums out of the Consolidated Fund for the years ending with 31 March 2013, 31 March 2014 and 31 March 2015; and to appropriate the supply authorised by this Act for the years ending with 31 March 2008, 31 March 2009, 31 March 2010, 31 March 2011, 31 March 2012, 31 March 2013 and 31 March 2014
Royal assent, 8 March 2012. An Act to authorise the use of resources for the years ending with 31 March 2012 and 31 March 2013; to authorise the issue of sums out of the Consolidated Fund for those years and for the year ending with 31 March 2011; and to appropriate the supply authorised by this Act for the years ending with 31 March 2011 and 31 March 2012
Significant improvements have been made in HM Prison Service's catering arrangements resulting in financial savings and improved quality of service. Since 2003-04, savings of some £2.5 million have been made each year from expenditure on food and some £1.7 million a year on catering staff - mainly through civilianisation of catering staff posts. Other savings have arisen from more efficient procurement and reduced stockholdings of food. In addition most prisoners are offered full and varied programmes of physical education activities.
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