Decision report 201100556

Summary
Mr C complained that the price of goods available to buy in his prison kept increasing, although wages for prisoners stayed the same. When we investigated, we were satisfied that the prison were trying to keep prices down as far as reasonably possible. We accepted that there had been price increases because VAT had increased in January 2011 and because the suppliers of the goods were increasing their prices to the prison. Mr C said prices were cheaper in some other prisons, and we explained to him that each prison used their own suppliers, which meant that some were able to negotiate better deals than others (for example, if they were located close to the supplier). That meant that the prices would differ from prison to prison. We also told Mr C that wage levels for prisoners were a matter for the SPS headquarters, not this office.