Speeches by Cox.

“On the question of workload and that kind of thing, do you think court digitisation, the court transformation programme and IT programmes will assist in alleviating the pressures on staff? Where are you with that?”

“With respect, it was my line of questioning that gave rise to that discussion last week. It arose out of a discussion around health, but it was a more general reflection by him on his ability to have access to data around the range of contracts that we have discussed today. It would be worth following up.”

“It would offer more confidence in the system if there was a further conversation about the transparency of those arrangements within reason, but I know we need to move on.”

“I mean that the chief inspector of prisons and we as a Committee do not have access to the data on performance. We absolutely understand commercial sensitivity, but our focus is on performance. If they were performing well, we probably would not be asking these questions, but, given the situation we have observed in pr…”

“Thank you for setting that out. We respect the complexity of it and the fact that it has been developed over many years. As a Committee, we have heard quite a lot of concerns about the scrutiny of the performance of many of those contractors, on our visits and from witnesses in our inquiries. We have a prison maintenan…”

“I want to continue the discussion around contracts. We acknowledge the scale and complexity of the contractual arrangements of the MOJ and other Departments. I understand from the House of Commons Library team that there are 450 contracts in total, but the Committee heard from Minister Timpson that in fact there are 1,…”

“I am Pam Cox, Member for Colchester. My interests are as declared.”

“To turn to the passage of drugs into prison, we touched in our earlier session on the question of staff involvement in that at some level. Noting that most staff are not corrupt, how do you address the issue of staff corruption in your establishments?”

“Good afternoon. I am Pam Cox. I am the Member of Parliament for Colchester and my interests are as declared on the register.”

“On that question of barriers, Natalie, I was quite struck by what you said in your opening remarks: that you felt that you did not have enough education and workplace or purposeful activity places in the prison. Which providers are contracted to deliver those in your prison? Do you feel, as governor, you have enough in…”

“Good afternoon. I am Pam Cox. I am the Member of Parliament for Colchester and my interests are as declared on the register.”

“Would you mind if I came in on that point? We are talking about prison facilities and maintenance. I understand the MoJ has returned a certain number of millions of pounds unspent from the capital budget because of supplier failure in prison expansion and maintenance programmes. Is that having a bearing on the ability …”

“On that question of barriers, Natalie, I was quite struck by what you said in your opening remarks: that you felt that you did not have enough education and workplace or purposeful activity places in the prison. Which providers are contracted to deliver those in your prison? Do you feel, as governor, you have enough in…”

“Would you conclude that we are not getting value for public money from the current commissioning arrangements?”

“That is interesting. Charlie, you were nodding there. As chief inspector, do you have access to data on the commissioning process?”

“I have one more question on this area. I recently met Dr Caroline Watson, who is the Royal College of GPs champion for healthcare and secure environments. Could regular GPs play more of a role in the public health setting in our jails?”

“Could I ask the same question to the other two governors present?”

“Which providers are helping you to provide those work placements?”

“Would you mind if I came in on that point? We are talking about prison facilities and maintenance. I understand the MoJ has returned a certain number of millions of pounds unspent from the capital budget because of supplier failure in prison expansion and maintenance programmes. Is that having a bearing on the ability …”

“Continuing this line of inquiry, if I may, Dame Carol, you mentioned there was no single commissioning standard for drug-free living wings. What is your view of the performance of commissioned healthcare services in prison, aside from that?”