Her Majesty's Prison Service

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The logo of HMPS

Her Majesty's Prison Service is the British Executive Agency reporting to the Home Office tasked with managing most of the prisons within England and Wales (Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own Prison Services - the Scottish Prison Service and Northern Ireland Prison Service). The head of the prison service, the Director-General, currently Phil Wheatley, reports to the Home Secretary and also works closely with the Prisons Minister, a junior ministerial post within the Home Office. Early in 2004, it was announced that the Prison Service will be integrated into a new National Offender Management Service later in the year.

As of 2004, the Prison Service is responsible for the custody of about 72,000 prisoners in 138 prisons. The Prison Service employs around 44,000 staff.

The Service's statement of purpose states "Her Majesty's Prison Service serves the public by keeping in custody those committed by the courts. Our duty is to look after them with humanity and help them lead law-abiding and useful lives in custody and after release." The Home Office's objective for prisons seeks "Effective execution of the sentences of the courts so as to reduce re-offending and protect the public".

Population statistics for the Service are published weekly. On 9 June 2006, the Service housed 77,642 prisoners, including 11,159 males aged 15-21, 4,461 females aged over 21 and 477 females aged 15-21.

The Prison Service does not manage all prisons within England and Wales. Currently there are seven prisons that have been designed, constructed, managed and financed (so-called DCMF prisons) privately. There are two further prisons that were built with public money but are managed privately. Two more DCMF prisons, in Bronzefield (HM Prison) at Ashford and Peterborough, are under construction or awaiting their first prisoner. Private prisons are subject to scrutiny by the Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons in a similar manner to prisons run by the public Prison Service.

Every prison in England and Wales, even those run by the private sector, have allocated to them an Independent Monitoring Board (IMB), formerly known as a Board of Visitors. Members of the IMB are appointed by the Home Secretary and act as 'watchdogs' for both the Minister of Prisons and the general public.

On 6 January 2004, Former Home Secretary David Blunkett announced that the Prison Service, together with the National Probation Service, is to be integrated into a new National Offender Management Service. The Service, Blunkett said, will be "a new body to provide end-to-end management of all offenders". The Prison Service will still have a Director General, who will report to the Chief Executive of the new agency. As of August 2005, the changes had yet to be introduced, with the relevant parliamentary bill having been abandoned due to the general election (a copy of the proposed bill from the Stationery Office).