Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the announcement of 22 March 2017 on plans for four new prisons, what the (a) certified normal accommodation and (b) operating capacity at each establishment will be; and what the benchmarked numbers for (i) prison officers and (ii) operational support grade staff will be at each such establishment.

We will close down ageing and ineffective prisons, replacing them with buildings fit for today’s demands. We are investing £1.3bn to build up to 10,000 modern prison places with better education facilities and other rehabilitative services. On 22 March 2017, my Rt Hon friend, the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice announced plans for the building of four new prisons in England and Wales, replacing old and overcrowded establishments with new, fit for purpose buildings.

We expect that the redevelopment work at HMP Hindley and HMP Rochester will take around two and a half years.

We will work with HMP Rochester’s and HMP Hindley’s management teams to make sure the prison’s staffing is sufficient to run the establishment safely and effectively until it closes. Retaining highly skilled, committed staff is hugely important to the success of the Prison Service, so we will seek to permanently redeploy staff into posts in other locations, but they are free to apply for jobs that are advertised through normal vacancy filling arrangements. We expect to be able to transfer all staff to other establishments.

Once we have a planned date for closure we will then identify those prisoners that will require a move to another prison.

The Ministry of Justice has had a number of discussions with the relevant MPs and Councils in developing its plans for the new and redeveloped prison sites. The Government welcomes feedback on the development of its plans for the prison estate and will undertake public engagement events within the local areas relevant to the locations made in the announcement of 22 March 2017. Opportunities for local residents, businesses and stakeholders to provide additional feedback is also available through the formal local planning application process. We will work with Parliamentary colleagues in the development of these plans.

We will work closely with Local Authorities; NHS trusts; and police forces to ensure services such as Health, Education, Social Services and Accommodation are involved in planning for the new prison right from the start.

At this stage it is too early to give an estimate of the cost of designing and building the new prison but we will seek to ensure value for money for taxpayers. We are currently developing the operating specifications for new prisons.

No decision has been taken on the future operation of these sites but we will be considering this issue and make a decision in good time for their opening.