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Written question asked by Baroness Young of Hornsey (Crossbench) on Monday, 1 September 2014, in the House of Lords. It was due for an answer on Monday, 15 September 2014. It was answered by Lord Faulks (Conservative) on Monday, 15 September 2014 on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.

Prisons: Race Relations

Question

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many race relations posts at a senior level there are currently in prisons; and what were the numbers (1) five, and (2) ten years ago.

Answer

Data on the number of Race Relations posts is not collected centrally. In 1997, the Prison Service Order (PSO) 2800 The Race Relations Manual made it compulsory for all Governors to appoint a Race Relations Liaison Officer and recommended that this should be at the Principal Officer (middle manager) grade. In September 2006, a revised PSO 2800 mandated that Prison Governors would recruit a Race Equality Officer (REO) based on competence and the skills needed to perform the role.

In April 2011, Prison Service Instruction (PSI) 32/2011 Ensuring Equality was published, which removed all mandatory orders to have a specific post for race equality. It mandated that all prisons should have a senior manager with lead responsibility for coordinating work on all equality related issues.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
HL1798
Session
2014-15
Subjects
Prisons Staff Race relations HM Prison Service
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk