A prison emergency response team and further training for prison officers is on the cards, said Health and Social Services Minister Clarence Terceira yesterday.

However they will not be dealt until a Canadian prison consultant arrives in November.

The news comes in the aftermath of a sit-in by remand inmates at the Westgate Correctional Facility on Monday night which prompted an anonymous prison officer to contact The Royal Gazette .

He revealed that many members of the Prison Service were not trained to deal with problems that could arise. He also pointed out that there was no response team in place for emergencies.

But Dr. Terceira denied these claims.

"To say there is no response effort in place is not correct,'' he said.

"There is a response team in place in case of an emergency. In fact a type of response action was taken last night. I can't say more than that for obvious reasons.

"I don't know the details of all the actual responses within the prison.

There are some they don't make public for obvious reasons.'' Dr. Terceira said a prison consultant was "coming on board'' and the Prison Service wanted to get "his concepts and best ideas on how to really beef this up and do it really well''.

The Canadian consultant will be paid $188,000 over two years to overhaul the Prison Service.

He will also be responsible for executing recommendations contained in the Pret Report which grew out of problems the Prison Service experienced when Westgate opened in September, 1994.

The Canadian firm Pret Inc. reviewed the prisons in 1996 and came up with a series of proposals and a scathing assessment of management, staffing procedures and security operations.

"I imagine the response system will be totally revamped when this consultant comes on board in November. He is finishing up where he is now and he is anxious to get started,'' said Dr. Terceira.

Turning to the training prison officers received, Dr. Terceira pointed out that they received six weeks intense training when they joined up.

He added: "The consultant may revamp this as well. This is why I am waiting to get his advice. I want to take his advice on how often to retrain officers and that kind of thing.''