Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 21 May 2019 to Question 253599 on Glen Pava Prison and Wellingborough Prison: Contracts, on what date his Department plans to award the Prison Operator Framework; and if he will make a statement.

On the 5 June 2019 I wrote to the Justice Select Committee to provide an update on the modernisation of the prison estate. In that letter, which I will place a copy of in the House Library, I confirmed the six bidders (G4S Care and Custody Services UK Limited, Interserve Investments Limited, Management and Training Corporation Works Limited, Mitie Care & Custody, Serco Limited, and Sodexo Limited) who had been accepted on to the Prison Operator Services Framework and who are now eligible to bid in future mini-competitions to operate individual prisons. We intend to launch the mini-competition for the first new Resettlement Prison at Wellingborough in July 2019 and anticipate making the award to the successful operator in July 2020.

The Government is committed to a mixed market of custodial services. The Prison Operator Framework will increase the diversity and resilience of the custodial services market in England and Wales, by creating a pool of prison operators who can provide high quality, value for money, custodial and maintenance services and enable us to effectively and efficiently manage a pipeline of competition over the next six years.