Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what progress his Department's Estates Directorate has made in analysing water usage and associated costs on the prison estate.

The Ministry of Justice undertook a review of water use, and associated costs, on the prison estate, in 2018. This has informed the development and application of good, typical and poor water efficiency benchmarks for prisons; and water reduction targets have now been set for all prisons. In addition, more detailed consumption data is being provided to prison Governors to facilitate improved water management at site level.

In-depth audits of the ten highest water consuming prisons will be carried out in February 2019; and the Department has developed a Water Strategy which it intends to publish in Spring 2019.

The Department is also re-procuring water services contract this year. This contract will provide for the installation of automatic meter reading (‘smart meters’) to enable improved monitoring and targeting of excessive water consumption.