Most PFI prisons have had problems when they first opened but, with a significant exception, performance has improved

1.6  Most of the seven PFI prisons, like other prisons, experienced problems when they first opened, but with one main exception, they have now settled and are performing reasonably well. This section summarises the performance of each PFI prison against its contract. We examined each contractor's performance during 2002 (calendar year)7 using information provided by the Prison Service on financial deductions and reports written by the Controller. From this, we produced a table (Figure 9) detailing the financial deductions and escape fines for each PFI prison during this period. This figure shows that the penalty points for four of the prisons were below their contractual thresholds and of the other three, one amounted to less than 1 per cent of the unitary payment. Moreover, two of these three prisons were in their second year of operation.

9

 

Penalty Performance Deductions (Jan - Dec 2002)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Penalty Performance Points acquired Jan-Dec 02

Adjusted Baseline1

Cost per point

Peformance Deductions

Deductions as % of annual payment

Escapes Fines

 

 

Ashfield

6362

 

2848

 

£94

 

£331,121

 

 

3.0

£0

 

 

 

Dovegate

3573

 

1784

 

£227

 

£406,392

 

 

1.5

£0

 

 

 

Altcourse

3964

 

6849

 

£293

 

£0

 

 

0

£0

 

 

 

Parc

6157

 

6443

 

£141

 

£0

 

 

0

£0

 

 

 

Lowdham Grange

301

 

620

 

£105

 

£0

 

 

0

£0

 

 

 

Forest Bank

4178

 

8052

 

£170

 

£0

 

 

0

£0

 

 

 

Rye Hill

2

 

2

 

2

 

£5,5893

 

 

0.043

£60,000

 

 

 

NOTES

1  The contractual baseline is adjusted to take into account overcrowding and assaults in comparator prisons.

2  Rye Hill has a different contractual framework for calculating performance deductions based on quarterly and annual penalty performance deductions, each priced differently.

3  Therefore these figures refer to the most recent contractual year rather than January-December 2002.

Source: Her Majesty's Prison Service




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7  With the exception of Rye Hill which has the new performance measurement system which contains a mixture of annual and quarterly performance measures.

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