Written question asked by Cheryl Gillan (Conservative) on Friday, 17 September 2004, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 12 October 2004. It was answered by Paul Goggins (Labour) on Tuesday, 12 October 2004 on behalf of the Home Office.

Home Office

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the pay scales are for (a) administrative officers in the Prison Service and (b) prison officers; and what job evaluation exercises have been carried out by the Prison Service in respect of administrative posts in the past five years. - Inc figures and fact that information involves disproportionate cost.

Answer: Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the pay scales are for (a) administrative officers in the Prison Service and (b) prison officers; and what job evaluation exercises have been carried out by the Prison Service in respect of administrative posts in the past five years. [189867] Paul Goggins: The pay scale for Administrative Officers in the Prison Service is £12,502-£15,415. That for Prison Officers is £16,896-£24,868, with Long Service Increments rising to £25,788. The Prison Service introduced Phase 1 of its review of pay and grading in July 2000. This affected 2,500 middle and senior managers, including those in administrative and operational disciplines, and replaced more than 150 existing grades with a seven-payband common. Development of Phase 2 of the review, which would have included administrative posts, was halted in April 2002, with the project work subsumed within pay modernisation. To date, the Prison Service has carried out 507 individual job evaluations. The system evaluates the job and not the individual job-holder, so it is not possible to identify how many of these jobs were held by administrative grades without incurring disproportionate cost.

Secondary information