Guidance for prison release escort arrangements

Background

To date, HMPPS has relied on police forces to provide escorts (e.g. secure transport) for certain prisoners released on licence.

Police escorts have been withdrawn by a number of police forces, resulting in inconsistent practice.

Arrangements have been made for the Prisoner Escort and Custody Service (PECS) to provide transport for prisoners where the risk management plan identifies a need for an escorted release, and the relevant police force has declined to provide an escort.

The licence conditions Policy Framework (January 2025) includes the following additional licence condition:

• On release be escorted by police to approved premises

Criteria

The condition is typically applied to complex cases where there is a degree of risk that the individual would fail to attend an approved premises on release.

Agreement for this licence condition is usually agreed locally through the MAPPA process.

In light of the number of forces withdrawing police escort, a temporary agreement has been made with PECS to escort eligible released prisoners.

To be eligible for PECS escort, the following criteria must be met:

• Case must be managed under MAPPA level three
• The escort must be part of the risk management plan and adhere to the usual criteria of necessity and proportionality
• The following bespoke licence condition must be approved by PPCS:
  • On release be escorted by the Prisoner Escort and Custody Service to approved premises

PECS will not escort prisoners as part of an Integrated Offender Management Strategy unless the above criteria apply.

If the local police force is able to escort the prisoner on release as part of the risk management plan, and this is agreed in MAPPA, police escort can be used and PECS transport will not be required.

Escorts for prisoners managed by Counter Terrorism Police will be managed by the police CT nominal management teams.

To support this process, Electronic Monitoring Services (EMS) have agreed that where relevant, GPS tagging can be applied at the prison pre-release.

Arrangements for this will be communicated with the establishment on a case-by-case basis. This is a service already offered by EMS and is business as usual within their teams. This approach is outlined in the guidance for escorting released prisoners.

Contact

As soon as the requirement for PECS transport for a MAPPA L3 case is identified, the relevant PECS Senior Contract Delivery Manager (SCDM) should be invited to the MAPPA meeting.

Should you need to obtain their contact details please email: pecsperformanceteam@justice.gov.uk