Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the performance of privatised prison services in the past year; and whether they intend to review the case for returning those services to the public sector.

We have robust processes in place to closely monitor privately managed prisons and will not hesitate to take action if and when standards fall short. There is a HMPPS Controller based in every privately managed prison, accountable for providing assurance that the contracts are delivered in accordance with agreed contractual delivery indicators, and that the prison provides safe, decent and secure services. Senior Contract Managers (SCMs) provide an additional level of operational assurance and support for the Controllers.

Privately managed prison contracts set out a strict performance framework, consisting of prescriptive performance targets. Failure by the provider to meet performance targets results in performance points and, potentially, financial remedies being applied against the provider. It is important to recognise, however, that privately managed prison providers achieve the majority of their contractual targets.

Any decision to revoke a contract to operate a privately managed prison will be made after following a clear process and where the operator fails to improve performance despite this process. We do not currently anticipate any such action taking place against any privately managed prison.

Privately managed prisons have been a key feature of the prison estate for over 20 years and will continue to play an important role.