Oral Answers to Questions

Mohammad Yasin Excerpts

Tuesday 4th June 2019 Commons Chamber

[Mohammad Yasin (Bedford) (Lab)]

6. What his policy is on privately run prisons.

[The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice (Mr David Gauke)]

The Government remain committed to a role for the private sector in operating custodial services. The sector has an important role to play and currently runs some high-performing prisons as part of a decent and secure prison estate.

[Mohammad Yasin]

Publicly run HMP Bedford has been deprived of adequate funding, while public investment has been given to the notorious blacklisting construction firm Kier to build a new supersized prison nearby in Wellingborough, which will be handed straight to the private sector to run. Will the Minister explain why the public sector was banned from bidding for the new prison?

[Mr Gauke]

We believe in a balanced estate—the last prison built was HMP Berwyn, which is in the public sector—to maintain a mix of providers. We wanted to ensure that the next two were in the private sector.