Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether the new prisons planned to be built at (a) Glen Parva and (b) Wellingborough will be (a) operated and (b) managed by a private company.

As set out on the 26 June at the Justice Select Committee and in the 2017 manifesto, we remain committed to building up to 10,000 modern and decent prison places to replace old, expensive and unsuitable accommodation.

As the Chancellor set out in the budget on 30 October, we intend to build the first two prisons through public capital at Wellingborough, which is due to open in 2021 and Glen Parva, which we expect to open in 2022. We are planning to launch a competition later this year to establish a framework from which the operators of the new prisons will be chosen.

HM Prison and Probation Service will not take part in the prison competition. We will provide a ‘public sector benchmark’ against which operators’ bids can be assessed and will take on the provider role if bids do not meet quality or value for money thresholds.