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Prisons

Volume 460: debated on Monday 21 May 2007

To ask the Minister of State, Ministry for Justice pursuant to her answer of 7 November 2006, Official Report, column 1425W, on prisons, how many prison places have been provided under contracts signed by this Administration; and if she will make a statement. (118823)

Since May 1997, over 20,000 prison places have been delivered, of which 5,397 were provided by the private sector under agreements reached post May 1997.

The following table shows the number of prison places provided through the PFI initiative:

Location

Date of contract

Certified Normal Accommodation—pre May 1997

CNA—post May 1997

Overcrowding—post May 1997

Total under current Administration

Total Op Cap1

Altcourse2

20 December 1995

838

180

180

1,018

Rye Hill

23 July 1999

800

45

645

645

Forest Bank

6 July 1998

800

264

1,064

1,064

Lowdham Grange2

7 November 1996

504

60

564

564

Dovegate

27 September 1999

800

60

860

860

Ashfield3

1 July 1998

400

0

400

400

Peterborough

4 February 2003

840

108

948

948

Bronzefield

20 December 2002

450

0

450

450

Parc

4 January 1996

614

286

286

1,086

Total

4,394

1,003

5,397

7,035

1 Op Cap as at 26 January 2007.

2 308 place houseblocks currently under construction—places available in phases from April 2007.

3 HMP Ashfield transfers to the Youth Justice Board in April 2007.

Note:

The “Certified Normal Accommodation” is the uncrowded capacity of the establishment. Operational capacity is the total number of prisoners that an establishment can hold taking into account control, security and the proper operation of the planned regime. It is determined by operational managers on the basis of operational judgment and experience. Within the private prison estate the CNA is built into the contract and defined as available prisoner places. When the prison exceeds the CNA up to a pre-agreed level (Operational Capacity) these extra places are defined as ‘Additional Prisoner Places’ and is achieved by overcrowding.