Dan Jarvis – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2014-06-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average annual cost is of a place in a new Secure College.

Jeremy Wright

The Government’s vision for Secure Colleges was set out on 17 January 2014 in its response to the consultation paper “Transforming Youth Custody”. Secure Colleges will place education at the heart of custody, and equip young people with the skills they need to turn their lives around.

The current average cost of a place in youth custody is around £100,000 per annum, with some places costing in excess of £200,000. Secure colleges will achieve ongoing savings by operating at a significantly lower cost per place than the current average, while allowing withdrawal from more expensive and inefficient provision.

The MOJ will not publish estimates of the annual cost per place until the operator competition for the Secure College has been completed, to avoid prejudicing the effectiveness of the competition.