Speeches

Andy Slaughter – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2015-12-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the status is of each prison building and site for prisons closed since May 2010.

Andrew Selous

Since May 2010 we have closed 18 prisons. This includes two partial closures (HMP Camp Hill, HMP Brockhill) and two former prisons (Morton Hall and The Verne) which have been re-roled into Immigration Removal Centres. The closure of these, and other uneconomic prison places, delivered £170m in savings between 2011-12 and 2014-15.

Two former prisons, Wellingborough and Camp Hill, have been retained as a contingency measure to deal with unexpected events such as a larger than projected increase in the prison population. This allows us to have reserve capacity without the cost of keeping them fully operational.

The status of each of the closed prisons is as follows:

Former Prison

Status

HMP Ashwell

Sold

HMP Lancaster Castle

Lease handed back

HMP Latchmere House

Sold

HMP Wellingborough

Reserve capacity

HMP Bullwood Hall

Contracts exchanged

HMP Canterbury

Sold

HMP Gloucester

Sold

HMP Kingston

Sold

HMP Shepton Mallet

Sold

HMP Shrewsbury

Sold

HMP Blundeston

Contracts exchanged

HMP Dorchester

Sold

HMP Northallerton

Sold

HMP Camp Hill (part of HMP Isle of Wight)

Reserve capacity

HMP Brockhill (part of HMP Hewell)

Sold

HMYOI Reading

Not yet on the market

The Secretary of State for Justice announced on 9 November that we will sell former HMYOI Reading.