Prisons Opened/Reopened Since 1995

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asked Her Majesty's Government:Which new prisons have been opened or reopened since 1995; how many places there are in each; and what are the capital and running costs of each. [HL3063]

The table lists those prisons which have opened or reopened since 1995. In each case, the prison's opening date, current number of places, capital costs and net operating costs in 1997–98 have also been shown.

Prisons Opened or Reopened since 1995
Prison¹	Date opened	Current number of places	Capital costs (£m)	Net operating costs 1997–98 (£000)
Altcourse	December 1997	600	88	—
Colchester²	February 1997	32	nil	913
Eastwood Park	March 1996	255	14	4,454
Foston Hall	August 1997	150	4	2,999
Lowdham Grange	February 1998	500	32	—
Parc	November 1997	800	75	—
Weare	June 1997	400	13	5,822
¹ These prisons were newly opened, with the exception of Eastwood Park, which was closed as a male establishment and then reopened to house females in March 1996; and Foston Hall, which was formerly part of Sudbury male prison and has now been reopened as a female prison.
² Colchester was open for a period of 14 months as a pilot scheme for young offenders. The prison closed at the end of March 1998.
³ The capital costs given for the newly opened DCMF prisons are the project costs. These include capital expenditure before the prisons' opening and consist mainly of construction costs. Operating costs for these three establishments in 1997–98 are unavailable due to the short period during which they have been open. The cost of building and running each prison is borne by the prisons' operating company, who are repaid annually by the Prison Service over the lifetime of the contract. This annual fee is in the order of £26 million for Altcourse, £25 million for Parc and £13 million for Lowdham Grange.

Volume 593: debated on Thursday 3 September 1998