Nicholas Soames – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when he obtained clearance from the European Commission for his Department to retain a golden share in each Community Rehabilitation Company.

Jeremy Wright

On 19 September last year the Government launched the competition to find the future owners of the Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) who will deliver rehabilitation services in England and Wales. The European Commission does not operate a process whereby Member States are required to seek clearance in order to retain Special Shares in a company, and instead the onus is on individual States to ensure they are operating in accordance with the law. The Department is satisfied that it is in full compliance with European law on retaining a Special Share within each of the new CRCs. The Transforming Rehabilitation competition will continue through 2014 with contracts being awarded and mobilised by 2015.