IL POLICE SERVICE COSTRETTO A STRINGERE LA CINGHIA
Il Prison Service ha l’ordine imperativo di risparmaire 10 milioni di sterline
Nel 2010 il Northern Ireland Prison Service dovrà riuscire a risparmiare 10 milioni di sterline. I tagli, richiesti per fronteggiare la crisi finanziaria, verrano imposti ai servizi dietro le quinte come la chiusura delle sale da pranzo, ma colpiranno anche su tutta la linea.
Finaly Spratt, presidente del Prison Officers’ Association, ha assicurato che non ci saranno licenziamenti, ma c’è il divieto assoluto di nuove assunzioni “Noi non abbiamo le guardie carcerarie che dovremmo avere, ma si tratterà di lavorare con quello che abbiamo”.
Il risparmio di 10 milioni di sterline dovrà essere frutto di una ridistribuzione del personale e di una maggiore attenzione sul come si opera.
Il Prison Service deve restituire al NIO £ 5 milioni quest’anno e 10 milioni di sterline l’anno prossimo.
Ma un portavoce ha insistito che il risparmio non minaccerà le funzioni di base.
“Ad ogni area d’affari all’interno del Northern Ireland Prison Service è stato chiesto di identificare le aree in cui può essere mantenuta l’efficienza nell’ambito dei bilanci esistenti, al fine di vivere con le risorse disponibili, pur mantenendo gli attuali livelli di erogazione dei servizi”, ha aggiunto.
Prison Service must save £10m (U TV)
The Northern Ireland Prison Service will have to save £10m next year.
Cuts to backroom services like closing dining rooms are expected but reductions will be imposed across the board.
A review has been launched of back office services.
The DUP and Sinn Fein are close to clinching a deal devolving policing and justice functions to the Assembly.
Efficiency savings have been sought across government as the financial crisis bites.
Chairman of the Prison Officers’ Association Finlay Spratt said he had been assured there would be no redundancies.
“We don’t have the prison officers that we should have but it is a matter of working with what we have,” he said.
There is a ban on recruitment of prison officers, he added.
“It should be do-able to save the £10m. It is a matter of redistributing the staff and how we do things.”
The DUP and Sinn Fein have been locked in intensive negotiations about the cost of transferring justice functions from London to Belfast.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown is meeting the First and Deputy First Ministers in Downing Street to continue talks about the financial settlement, believed to be about £800m.
Sinn Fein has accepted the deal but the DUP wants more clarification.
The meeting between Mr Brown, Martin McGuinness and Peter Robinson is the fifth in 10 days.
The Northern Ireland Office plans to review the assets of the Prison Service to identify possible savings.
It is also looking at finance, human resources, IT, property and procurement across the department.
The Prison Service has to hand back the NIO £5m this year and £10m next year.
Minutes of a recent managerial meeting at Nips said: “Many of these services have already been scrutinised within Nips so there may be limited scope for any further savings.”
The POA in Great Britain warned earlier this year that budget cuts meant the ratio of prisoners to staff had increased.
But a spokesman for the Prison Service insisted the savings would not threaten core functions.
“Each business area within the Northern Ireland Prison Service has been asked to identify areas where efficiencies can be made from within existing budgets in order to live within available resources while maintaining current levels of service delivery,” he added.
Departments in the devolved administration also face making substantial savings as well as coping with the cost of swine flu and other pressures.
An estimated £370m needs to be saved next year.
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