National Offender Management Service: Maintenance of the Prison Estate in England and Wales

HC 722, Fifty-first Report of Session 2008-09 - Report, Together with Formal Minutes and Oral and Written Evidence

Author:

House of Commons - Public Accounts Committee

Publisher:

TSO (The Stationery Office)

The National Offender Management Service (NOMS), formed in April 2008, is responsible for maintaining the 129 public sector prisons in England and Wales.

'National Offender Management Service: Maintenance of the Prison Estate in England and Wales (HC 722)', reports that in 2007-08, the Service spent around £320 million maintaining the prison estate, down from £330 million in 2005-06. It has obtained good value for money from this expenditure, with prisons kept sufficiently well to maintain physical security, ensure prisoner and staff safety, and maintain prison capacity, despite a rising prisoner population.

There is plenty of scope for NOMS to improve its performance and its longer term management of the estate. The Service does not have a clear idea how much it is spending in total on maintenance, or how it is performing as an organisation. Basic information on how well prisons are carrying out maintenance tasks is not being produced locally, or collected and analysed centrally. The Service needs to improve the way it manages its assets and gain a better understanding of whole life costs and when it is most cost effective to switch from maintaining an asset to replacing it.

There are also gaps in the way NOMS manages its external contractors and its knowledge of how contractors are performing. Handovers from external contractors to local maintenance teams are not working as effectively as they should. The Service should consider developing cell availability as an overall measure of its success in maintaining the estate.

Extent	25 pages	ISBN	9780215541758
Size	A4	Price	£8.50
Binding	Paperback	Published	05 Nov 2009
Availability	Colour copy: 3 - 5 days	Delivery	Delivery options and charges

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