Prisons competition outcome

31 March 2011

The outcome of the competition for the management of five prisons has been announcement today by the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, Kenneth Clarke.

In 2009 it was announced that Her Majesty's Prisons (HMP) Birmingham, Buckley Hall, Doncaster, Wellingborough and a new prison, Featherstone 2, would be market-tested. During the competition process it became apparent that HMP Wellingborough could not produce significant improvements without considerable financial investment and therefore a decision was made to remove it from the competition process.

The outcome of the four remaining prisons is:
•HMP Birmingham will be run by G4S
•HMP Buckley Hall will be run by HM Prison Service
•HMP Doncaster will be run by Serco
•Featherstone 2 will be run by G4S

The new contracts for HMPs Birmingham, Buckley Hall and HMP Doncaster will be effective from October 2011 and from April 2012 for Featherstone 2.

At HMP Doncaster, Serco will operate the first of the new payment by results pilots announced in last December's Green Paper. This will see them working with their long term partners from the voluntary sector Turning Point, and Catch 22. They will in turn work with providers from the private, social enterprise, charity and voluntary sectors to enable them to meet the specific needs of each individual offender. The new contract price for HMP Doncaster will deliver significant annual savings as well as the much wider social benefit of a potential reduction in crime.

To read the full details, click here: http://www.justice.gov.uk/news/press-release-310311b.htm