PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Ministry of Justice: Pay (4 July 2016)

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, (a) how much has been paid to officials of his Department as an additional incentive for working overtime on top of their normal overtime payments, (b) how much has been offered to any individual staff member for a one-off occurrence, (c) how many staff received such incentivised additional payments, (d) from which budgets such payments were made and (e) at which Ministerial or official level the business cases or payment approval for such payments was made in (i) each of the last five years and (ii) 2016 to date.

Asked by:
Sarah Champion (Labour)

With the exception of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), the Ministry of Justice does not make any additional incentive payments to staff for working overtime in addition to overtime payments or time off in lieu.

NOMS does not generally pay additional incentives (over and above standard hourly rates) to staff to work overtime. In 2015 however, the Director of Public Sector Prisons approved the introduction of a bespoke scheme under which Prison Officers were invited to enter into contracts to work a set number of additional hours over a 14 week period.

Staff who enter into these contracts are paid a bonus at the end of the 14 week period after having completed the agreed number of additional hours. The level of bonus payments, which are funded from existing NOMS budgets, is set at either £150 or £275 depending on the agreed number of additional hours. To provide details of the number of staff who have received such payments within the time available would incur disproportionate cost.

Answered by:
Sir Mike Penning (Conservative)
12 July 2016