Revealed: The eye-watering cost of letting prisons crumble
UK’s prison maintenance backlog approaching £2bn
- Taxpayers are bearing "eyewatering" and grossly inflated costs for basic prison repairs, with private contracting deemed "out of control" by the Prison Officers' Association (POA).
- The UK prison estate is in a dire state due to decades of neglect, with a maintenance backlog approaching £2bn and a quarter of prisoners housed in non-fire-safe jails.
- Examples of excessive spending include a £7.8m project to upgrade 50 showers at HMP Wandsworth, costing £156,000 per shower, and a £12.48m healthcare centre delayed for years.
- The POA blames the 2015 privatisation of prison maintenance, while the National Audit Office criticises the Ministry of Justice's "reactive and expensive" procurement.
- Critics, including Labour MP Kim Johnson, advocate for insourcing maintenance to ensure better value for money, despite the Ministry of Justice defending outsourcing as the most effective approach.