Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 19 June 2019 to Question 263187 on Prisons: Contracts, what estimate he has made of the cost of the (a) staffing and (b) external advice required to (i) develop and (ii) run the prison operator competition.

The Prison Operator Framework Competition 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.

The estimated projected cost to run the Prison Operator Services Framework Competition and mini-competition for Wellingborough (including costs to date) of £5.5m is estimated to be £2.4m for external support and £3.1m for internal staffing. Estimated costs relating to the development of the competition were minimal and cannot be disaggregated from other costs incurred at that time.