£200k paid out to prisonersin compensation in last two years

Amongst the categories of claims listed by NIPS were “deaths in custody,” “assaults by officers” and the “Billy Wright murder.”

In 2009/10 £94,095.64 was paid out for a total of 23 claims and in 2010/11 £102,738 was paid out for a total of 27 claims.

According to information released under Freedom of Information legislation £35,000 was paid out for a “death in custody” in 2009/10.

A further £19,345.64 was paid out under the category of “assault by officers” in the same year.

However, NIPS points out that the four claims of “assault” taken against officers since 2009/10 were categorised as such because the term was used by the plaintiff’s solicitor when the claim was lodged and for that reason is lodged in its database as such.

“All four cases have been in relation to either Control & Restraint (C&R) techniques, Movement or Searching incidents where the prisoner has claimed to have been assaulted. In all cases officers have been following approved techniques and procedures but the prisoners have violently resisted and the court, where an award has been made by it, has ruled against NIPS on the balance of probabilities,” the Prison Service explains.

“In some cases it was assessed that NIPS would be unlikely to be able to disprove the allegations beyond the balance of probabilities and NIPS counsel advised a negotiated settlement on a “without prejudice basis”, i.e. without an admission of liability,” it adds.

Other compensation payments in 2009/10 were for defective facilities/unsafe working practices (£11,750), assault by an inmate (£8,500), slips/trips/falls (£6,250), false/unlawful imprisonment (£5,500), burns/scalds (£4,250), medical negligence (£3,000), post traumatic stress arising from the assassination of Billy Wright (£250) and a road traffic accident (£250).

Last year the highest compensation payment was in relation to the Billy Wright murder (£27,500).

The next highest amount of payments was for slips/trips/falls (£22,563) followed by contraction of disease (£15,000), death in custody (£15,000), defective facilities/unsafe working practices (£9,125), assault by officers - for which NIPS offer the same proviso (£7,500), false/unlawful imprisonment (£3,800), smoke inhalation (£2000) and burns/scalds (£250).