Criminal Justice Act 1991

80 Arrangements for the provision of prisoner escorts

(1) The Secretary of State may make arrangements for any of the following functions, namely—

(a) the delivery of prisoners to court premises;

(b) the custody of prisoners held on such premises (whether or not they would otherwise be in the custody of the court) and their production before the court;

(c) the delivery of prisoners so held to a prison or police station;

(d) the delivery of prisoners from one prison to another; and

(e) the custody of prisoners while they are outside a prison for temporary purposes,

to be performed in such cases as may be determined by or under the arrangements by prisoner custody officers who are authorised to perform such functions.

(2) Arrangements made by the Secretary of State under this section (“prisoner escort arrangements”) may include entering into contracts with other persons for the provision by them of prisoner custody officers.

(3) Any person who, under a warrant of commitment, is responsible for the performance of any such function as is mentioned in subsection (1) above shall be deemed to have complied with that warrant if he does all that he reasonably can to secure that the function is performed by a prisoner custody officer acting in pursuance of prisoner escort arrangements.