Ms Caron McCaffrey:

It is an issue for the Prison Service. I mentioned our vacancies as well as the draw to PSEC. The issue of sick leave also has an impact on prisons on a day-to-day basis. Where there are high levels of sick leave, they create vacancies within the prison, which regrettably leads to ancillary services being reduced.

We are coming towards the end of our current strategy, and maximising the use of existing services will be an area of particular focus in our upcoming strategy so as to ensure that, where we have work, training and educational facilities, we can assist, facilitate and encourage prisoners to utilise them fully.