Prison officer overtime has increased during Northern Ireland’s pandemic, the director general of the service said. Inmates are being held in single cells to reduce the risk of a Covid-19 outbreak but that requires extra manpower to staff a more sprawling footprint of buildings. The Northern Ireland Prison Service (NIPS) also has to cover individual sickness levels well in excess of the civil service-wide average but has reduced that to 19 days annually in recent times, Ronnie Armour added. Staff have been exceptionally good over the Covid period in stepping forward and doing some extra hours Ronnie Armour, Northern Ireland Prison Service