Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what alternative locations his Department considered before the decision was taken to build a new Category C prison at Full Sutton.

The department remains committed to previously announced plans, subject to planning approvals, value for money and affordability, to build six category C modern prisons including on the sites of former prisons at Wellingborough and Glen Parva, on land adjacent to HMP Full Sutton, a new site in South Wales, and the redevelopment of existing prisons at Hindey and Rochester. The new prisons will all provide modern, fit for purpose category C accommodation and are planned to be built in locations where the department has identified the greatest need for this type of capacity.

The MoJ began its assessment of options for delivering new prisons through the Prison Estate Transformation Programme (PETP) in 2016 which focused on MoJ owned sites that had the potential to accommodate new custodial space and could deliver on the objectives of the PETP including meeting demand. In addition, the department wrote to local authorities across England and Wales resulting in the identification of 39 potential sites suitable for a prison development which were each assessed against a pre-determined criteria.

A revised Outline Planning Application for a new, modern category C prison at Full Sutton has been submitted to East Riding of Yorkshire planning authority and documents making up the application, will be publicly available on the local authority’s planning portal in the coming days.

We will continue to engage with local stakeholders as we develop our plans for the new prison which forms a crucial part of the department’s commitment to deliver modern, safe and decent accommodation.