Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what financial penalties his Department plans to impose upon G4S following the Government takeover of HMP Birmingham.

G4S will cover the cost of the step-in at Birmingham but the MoJ does not apply financial penalties to its contracts; this practice being unenforceable in contract law. Financial remedies may be applied where a Contractor exceeds the maximum number of performance points accrued following any failure to achieve specified service levels set out in its contract. The contract at HMP Birmingham provides for the above calculation to be performed on a quarterly basis in arrears with any financial deduction recovered from G4S as a credit. The cost of the step-in will not be borne by the tax-payer.

Private sector companies continue to have an important role to play in the justice system, bringing innovation and expertise. We monitor all our strategic suppliers, including G4S, closely. Alongside contract management in departments, government officials meet all strategic suppliers regularly to discuss their financial and strategic situation as well as to discuss performance of government contracts.

HMPPS has stepped in under the terms of its contract to take operational control of HMP Birmingham until February 2019 in order to regain the necessary stability, and we’ll take a view again about its longer-term future at that time.