Criminal Justice Act 1991

80 Arrangements for the provision of prisoner escorts.E+W

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

[F1(a)the delivery of prisoners from one set of relevant premises to another;]

(b)the custody of prisoners held on [F2the premises of any court] (whether or not they would otherwise be in the custody of the court) and their production before the court;

[F3(ba)the custody of prisoners at a police station for any purpose connected with their participation in a preliminary, sentencing or enforcement hearing through a live audio link or live video link;]

[F4(c)the custody of prisoners temporarily held in a prison in the course of delivery 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.

[F5(1A)In paragraph (a) of subsection (1) above “relevant premises” means a court, prison, police station or hospital; and either (but not both) of the sets of premises mentioned in that paragraph may be situated in a part of the British Islands outside England and Wales.]

[F6(1B)Subsection (1)(ba) applies in relation to prisoners whether the hearing is yet to take place, is taking place or has taken place.]

(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 [F7a warrant or a hospital order or remand], is responsible for the performance of any such function as is mentioned in subsection (1) above shall be deemed to have complied with [F7the warrant, order or remand] 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.

[F8(4)In this section—

[F9“enforcement hearing”, “live audio link”, “live video link”, “preliminary hearing” and “sentencing hearing” each has the meaning given in section 56(1) of the Criminal Justice Act 2003;]
“hospital” has the same meaning as in the M1Mental Health Act 1983;
“hospital order” means an order for a person’s admission to hospital made under section 37, 38 or 44 of that Act, section 5 of the M2Criminal Procedure (Insanity) Act 1964 or section 6, 14 or 14A of the M3Criminal Appeal Act 1968;
“hospital remand” means a remand of a person to hospital under section 35 or 36 of the Mental Health Act 1983;
“warrant” means a warrant of commitment, a warrant of arrest or a warrant under section 46, 47, 48, 50 or 74 of that Act.]