The F1 Department of Justice (in this Act referred to as “the Department”) shall be the authority responsible for providing and maintaining prisons and for the general regulation, direction and superintendence of prisons and prisoners.

Without prejudice to the foregoing sub-section, the F2Department shall continue to exercise and perform, subject to the provisions of this Act, all such powers, jurisdiction and duties as were heretofore exercised and performed by the F3Ministry of Home Affairs in relation to prisons and prisoners.

For purposes connected with any matter mentioned in subsection (2), the Secretary of State may continue to exercise the functions (except functions under prison rules) which the Secretary of State had by virtue of this Act immediately before the coming into force of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 (Devolution of Policing and Justice Functions) Order 2010 (notwithstanding the transfer of those functions to the Department by virtue of that Order).

In particular, the Secretary of State may continue to make prison rules.

The Department must exercise its functions subject to any thing done by the Secretary of State under subsection (1) and, in particular, prison rules made by the Department have effect subject to prison rules made by the Secretary of State.

Before making prison rules the Secretary of State or the Department (as the case may be) must consult the other.

Prison rules may, in particular, confer or impose functions on the Secretary of State.

The Secretary of State may from time to time, for purposes connected with any matter mentioned in subsection (2) and after consultation with the Department, give a direction setting out arrangements under which officers of the Department (including persons appointed under section 2(2)) who have duties in relation to prisons or prisoners are (so far as provided by, and in accordance with, the arrangements) to be treated as officers of the Secretary of State (rather than of the Department) and subject to his direction and control accordingly; and the officers covered by the direction are to act accordingly.

The arrangements may (in particular) provide for officers to exercise functions of the Secretary of State.

The F5Department shall have and may exercise all such powers as appear to it to be necessary for the proper administration and maintenance of any prison including the equipment, provisioning and supply thereof and the making of and giving effect to arrangements for the welfare, employment and training of prisoners.

The F5Department shall appoint the governors F6. . . and such other officers and staff as appear to it to be necessary.

The numbers, remuneration and conditions of service of persons so appointed shall be determined by the F5Department with the approval of the F7Department of Finance and Personnel.

The F5Department may, with the approval of the F8Department of Finance and Personnel, enlarge, rebuild, repair or alter any prison and build new prisons.

Where it appears to the F5Department to be necessary or expedient for the purpose of this Act that any land should be acquired, the F5Department may, with the approval of the F9Department of Finance and Personnel, acquire by agreement that land and any easement or right in or over any land adjacent thereto.

The F5Department, with the approval of the F10Department of Finance and Personnel, may use, appropriate or dispose of in whatsoever manner it may think fit any premises which have ceased to be used as a prison.

The Department shall prepare an annual report on the administration of this Act and shall lay the report before the Assembly.

Where in any prison the number of prisoners who belong to any religious denomination is such as in the opinion of the F17Department to require the appointment of a minister of that denomination, the F17Department may appoint such a minister to that prison.

The F17Department may allow a minister of any denomination to visit prisoners of his denomination in a prison to which no minister of that denomination has been appointed under this section.

No prisoner shall be visited against his will by a minister.

Every prisoner shall be allowed, in accordance with the arrangements in force in the prison in which he is confined, to attend religious services held therein or to be visited by a minister of his denomination appointed to or permitted to visit prisoners under this section.

The governor of a prison shall on the reception of each prisoner record the religious denomination, if any, to which the prisoner declared himself to belong and shall give to any minister who is appointed or permitted to visit prisoners under this section a list of the prisoners who have declared themselves to belong to his denomination; and a minister shall not be permitted to visit any other prisoners except with the permission of the governor at the special request of the prisoner concerned.

There may be paid to ministers appointed to or permitted to visit prisons under this section such remuneration as the F17Department with the approval of the F18Department of Finance and Personnel may think reasonable.

The F20Department shall appoint a group of independent monitors (to be known as “the independent monitoring board”) for each prison, young offenders centre and remand centre.

In the case of a prison used as a women's prison, at least two of the monitors appointed shall be women.

Where any living accommodation is provided for a prison officer or his family by virtue of his office, then, if he ceases to be a prison officer or is suspended from office or dies, he, or, as the case may be, his family, shall quit the accommodation when required to do so by notice of the F21Department.

Where a prison officer or the family of a prison officer refuses or neglects to quit the accommodation forty-eight hours after the giving of such a notice as aforesaid, any resident magistrate, on proof made to him of the facts authorising the giving of the notice and of the service of the notice and of the neglect or refusal to comply therewith may by warrant direct the under-sheriff for the county in which the accommodation is situated, within a period specified in the warrant, to enter, by force if necessary, into the accommodation and deliver possession of it to the F21Department or any person appointed by the F21Department.