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UK: New Director General - Prison service

01 May 1996

Richard Tilt has been appointed Director General of the Prison Service. His salary, for a job that has been described as a "poisoned chalice", will be £77,000 per annum. It is thought that the recently established Home Office advisory board will impose severe restrictions on the scope of Tilt's decision making. He will be the first Director General to have actually run a prison. Tilt replaces Derek Lewis, who was sacked after a row with Home Secretary, Michael Howard, over responsibility for prisons following the breakout of five IRA prisoners from the "Secure" Unit at Whitemoor in 1994 and the escape from Parkhurst of three life prisoners in January 1995. The escapes prompted a critical report by sir John Learmont that cost Lewis his job. Earlier this year the Home Office effectively admitted that he had been wrongfully dismissed when it paid him £220,000. Tilt had been acting Director General since October 1995. He joined the Prison Service in 1967 as a Assistant Governor at Wellingborough Prison. He served as Governor of Bedford and Gartree and was Deputy Regional Director for the West Midlands between 1987-1989. Between 1992-1994 he was head of finance and resources in the Police Department on secondment to the Home Office. He became Director of Services in 1994 and Director of Security and Programmes after a reorganisation in January 1995. Home Office news release 1.4.96.