Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that it achieves value for money when it sells former prison sites.

We always seek to achieve value for money for the taxpayer. We have therefore engaged professional advisors to inform us on the future development and potential of ageing and ineffective prisons. This forms part of our consideration of the future of the estate. However, no decisions have been made about prison sites other than those already announced.

Valuation information of any kind in relation to the Ministry of Justice estate is deemed commercially sensitive and therefore would not be released.