Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has made an assessment of the financial impact of outsourcing in prisons.

In June 2019, the Ministry of Justice put in place the Prison Operator Services Framework to manage a pipeline of operator competitions for new build prisons, and existing private prisons as they expire. To date, eight operator competitions have been conducted via the Framework, with five contracts awarded and a further three due to be awarded in 2024.

The aim of all operator competitions is to secure an operator to provide high quality, sustainable, and value for money custodial and maintenance services that are safe, decent, secure, and rehabilitative.

In each competition, bidders are required to set out detailed, high quality, value for money prison specific proposals that must meet minimum quality and financial thresholds. Bids are evaluated against clearly defined quality and financial criteria and a public sector comparator.

All operator competitions have delivered savings and provided additional added value when compared against the public sector comparator.