Printed for the Cabinet. October 1949
GOVERNMENT
Page 474
SECRET
C.P. (49) 219
27th October, 1949
CABINET
Copy No. 31
PRISON OFFICERS' PAY
MEMORANDUM BY THE HOME SECRETARY
1. The Secretary of State for Scotland and I seek the decision of our colleagues on a question which has been under discussion between the Chancellor of the Exchequer and ourselves. The position is that the Prison Officers' Associa- tion, which is the trade union representing the subordinate staffs in the English and Scottish prison services, has made a claim for an increase of pay on the grounds that the prison service is an undermanned industry of national importance within the terms of paragraph 7 (d) of the White Paper on Personal Incomes, Costs and Prices (Cmd. 7321), and that an increase of pay is necessary to remedy the situation. Last month the claim came under negotiation at a joint meeting of the Whitley Councils for the English and Scottish prison services, in the course of which the Staff Side notified their intention of taking the claim to arbitration if agreement could not be reached.
2. The Prison Commissioners thereafter reported to me that though they could not support the claim as put forward, viz., for a 20 per cent. advance all round, they thought the time had come when some increase must be made in the pay of the basic grade in order to attract more recruits to the service, in view of the following considerations.
3. At the end of hostilities the prison service was faced both with a large deficit of man-power, due to suspension of recruiting for six years, and with a substantial increase in the prison population over pre-war years. During 1947 and 1948 the service attracted many recruits, but at the same time the prison population increased even more steeply in England and Wales, so that in 1948 and 1949 it has been at a level of about 20,000, nearly double the pre-war figure. The staff situa- tion therefore got relatively worse, in spite of the absolute increase in numbers. In 1949 it has changed for the worse again in two respects. First, with the coming into force of certain provisions of the Criminal Justice Act, particularly those dealing with persistent offenders, there is a substantial additional strain on both staff and accommodation: the courts are using these new powers more fully than was expected, and the Commissioners must treat prisoners so sentenced as the law provides. Secondly, there has been since early in the year so serious a decline in recruitment that the past six months, instead of providing an increase of some 300 as was hoped, have shown a net loss of over 50.
4. The present position in England and Wales is that less than 3,000 men are in post in the basic grade of prison officer, against an estimated need of 3,600 in 1949 and possibly 4,000 in 1950. And these needs are based on using only one shift of officers, instead of the normal pre-war practice of two shifts, a situation which in itself has undesirable consequences.
In Scotland these conditions have not arisen, or not to any significant extent, but since it is essential that the pay and emoluments of prison officers in the two countries should remain on a uniform basis, whatever decision is reached must be applied equally to both services.
5. The Secretary of State for Scotland and I regard the prison service as a national security serviæ paghe
y service paghe same level of importance as theppplice 74tdf rodess
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to indeage 455 qumbers of the police so that they Page cachondr9riminals, if the numbers in the prison service are allowed to fall so that they cannot do their part in dealing with the criminals when they have been caught.
6 A serious breakdown in the prison service would bring grave discredit on the Government, and as the Departmental Minister concerned I am bound to bring the probability of such an eventuality before my colleagues. The only step which seems likely to meet the immediate necessities of the case is an offer of an increase in wages. I therefore placed before the Chancellor of the Exchequer certain proposals designed to increase the wages of this service at the bottom on what seemed to me a minimum basis. He has in reply expressed the view that the decline in recruitment seems to be one of the effects of the inflationary pressure which has developed during the year, "and the hope that "if we can reduce the inflationary pressure then there should be more people available to fill your jobs at the existing levels.' On these grounds he feels unable to agree to an increase in prison officers' wages which can only tend towards more inflation.'
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7. For my part I must say that though these considerations may be correct in principle, and may prove to be justified on a long-term view, my immediate concern is with the present necessities of the situation. In particular, if I cannot offer an increase which will prevent this claim going to arbitration, it will be necessary to decide on what grounds the claim is to be publicly resisted on the resumption of Whitley negotiations, and later before the Tribunal.
8.
The Whitley negotiations were adjourned on 14th September for a period of one month, and the Staff Side are pressing for a statement of the attitude of the Official Side towards their claims.
9. If the Cabinet decide that no improvement in pay can be conceded to prison officers, I think that the only line to be taken at the Whitley Council and later before the Tribunal if the Staff Side take the matter to arbitration is that, notwithstanding that the prison service is undermanned, considerations of general economic policy preclude the Government from offering any increase in wages at the present time. Any such statement either to the Whitley Council or to the
Tribunal should in my view be made on behalf of the Government as a whole.
J. C. E.
Home Office, S.W. 1,
27th October, 1949.