Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to his Answer of 19 December 2018 to Question 201129 on Full Sutton Prison, what assurances he has sought that the Traffic Assessment for Full Sutton and the surrounding area was carried out at a representative time of the year in view of the fact that the East Riding is a tourist area; and if he will make a statement.

Further to my answer to PQ 201129, the new Transport Assessment (TA) submitted in support of the Outline Planning Application (OPA) for the new prison at Full Sutton, a revision of the one submitted for the approved OPA in July 2017, is road surveys of both peak and off-peak traffic flows, speed data and turning movements at the existing HMP Full Sutton and were commissioned in October 2018. This was considered to be a robust representation of loads on the local network and is within the scope agreed with the Highway Authority. Traffic surveys are carried out outside school holidays because trips on the network are materially lower during these periods. Surveys carried out during school holidays might indicate that junctions are less busy than they are at all other times and so would not be representative.

The road survey data was used to calculate trip generation for the new prison, once operational, based on staff and visitor assumptions used for the planning of the larger HM Prison Berwyn in Wrexham which opened in February 2017. The conclusions of the assessment are that the highway network is expected either to continue to operate well within acceptable capacity parameters when the additional traffic generated by the prison is added to the network (in both the construction and operational phases), or that the additional impacts will be low.

The department remains committed to previously announced plans, subject to planning approvals, value for money and affordability, to build up to 10,000 modern prison places which, along with the reorganisation of the existing estate, will provide the physical conditions for Governors to achieve better educational, training and rehabilitative outcomes.

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.