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<p>Payment Plus is funded through Her Majesty’s Prisons and Probation Service’s staff
pay budget from savings arising from any staff vacancies, which are then re-invested
by each prison to fund the Payment Plus (PP) needed to cover operational staff vacancies.</p><p>Prison
governors have always had the authority to use PP to allow for additional staff time
to cover vacancies. They are given an annual budget for staff costs based on agreed
staffing levels and are expected to manage PP within this.</p><p>In the first quarter
of this financial year, the total spend on PP was £20.4m, which includes additional
overtime cover in response to the impact of COVID-19.</p><p>At the start of the COVID-19
pandemic, there was a high risk of increased staff absence and to mitigate this, staff
were asked to volunteer for additional PP hours in advance of need. Since the start
of the scheme in mid-March, to end June, about 60% of the total extra PP hours volunteers
had committed to work were used and the remainder are being used as prisons move into
recovery.</p>
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