Yvette Del Agua Must Resign

As the Minister for Social Services (some may say the Minister of Social Dis-Service), with responsibility for HM Prison, she is ultimately responsible and must account for the serious risks that she and this caretaker Government are subjecting the public and the costs to which the tax-payer is put every time a prisoner escapes from Moorish Castle.

Public accountability, if any in this Government understand or care about it at all, now requires her to resign immediately.

The responsibility for these escapes does not rest with the good work and dedicated service that our Prison Wardens and Staff have for many years provided the public with, in the most difficult of working environments and conditions which subjects them to daily safety and health hazards.  Their plight is another huge neglect of this Government.

The conditions for inmates on remand and those serving prison sentences is another huge plight ignored and

neglected by this Government for many years and meanwhile the best this Government has done is to tell the Prison Staff, prisoners and the public that a new prison is being built - something similar to their Housing "philosophy". Meanwhile you all lump it and cope with it even if they are perilous, inhuman and degrading conditions under which you work or serve time and dare you say anything about it.

It is scandalous for this Minister that every time a serious issue or concerns are raised she will hide behind the Chief  Minister or the Social Services Agency or even employees and TGWU (as her latest statement regarding matters affecting the Dr Giraldi Home that have not seen the public light of day because her Government has effectively torpedoed and delayed independent scrutiny of some of the issues by appealing against the decisions of the Industrial Tribunal and now suspended Chief Justice, both upheld by the Court of Appeal) and shift blame and responsibility away from herself.

The public, Mrs Del Agua, will not be distracted by these silly, but dangerous games you play with the lives of others.  This is the second call for a public enquiry into another aspect of your ministerial portfolio and responsibility that you have dismally handled.  The Staff at Dr Giraldi's are not to blame, Madam, but the system and structures you have made them work under - under your direct responsibility - in as much as with the Prison Service.

Vox challenges you to come out and give a full explanation of the number of escapes during your term of office, the conditions of service and environment that the Prison Wardens operate under, their staffing levels and resources, any complaints and representations made to you or Government by the Prison Association or Parole Board, the views of the prisoners; and, on the people who have escaped, their offences, risk to the public, the costs of catching them, and everything else a proper minister in the UK or elsewhere in the world would be expected to tell the public, which we know you will not do, followed by the decent thing they would do, which we also know you will not do - resign.

The other incidents we leave to you to fully disclose and explain - which we also know you will not do and, if you do, it will be someone else's fault or glossed over by ludicrous suggestions or explanations that exonerate you and your Government.