Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he plans to publish the Estates and Transformation Team report on the feasibility of the public sector bidding to run new-build prisons; and if he will make a statement.

On 26 June I updated the House of Commons Justice Committee on our plans to build the first prison in our prison estate transformation programme at the former HMP Wellingborough through public capital, with construction work expected to begin late 2018/early 2019 – subject to the usual planning approvals, value for money and affordability.

We intend to launch a competition to appoint a framework of prison operators, from which we will select the operator for the new prison at Wellingborough and potentially further prisons following expiry of current private sector contracts.

HM Prison and Probation Service will not bid to run the new prison at Wellingborough. However, there will be a ‘public sector benchmark’ against which operators’ bids will be assessed. Contracts will not be awarded if bids do not meet quality or value for money thresholds.