§ Baroness Faithfullasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they intend to sell HM Prison Oxford; and, if so, how much money was spent on modernising the prison and why, in the light of the current overcrowding of prisons, closure is being contemplated.
§ The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Blatch)Responsibility for this matter has been delegated to the temporary Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.
196WALetter to Baroness Faithfull from the temporary Director General of the Prison Service, Mr. Richard Tilt, dated 7/11/95.
The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Question about the closure of Oxford prison.
Oxford prison was reopened in April 1994 as a temporary measure to provide a short-term solution to a rise in the prison population which coincided with a major refurbishment programme at existing prisons elsewhere and which resulted in a temporary shortage of accommodation. The prison was not modernised, but £170,000 was spent on recommissioning to enable it to reopen.
It is proposed to close the prison by the end of 1996 and, after decommissioning, to sell the buildings and site back to Oxfordshire County Council in accordance with a 19th century legal agreement.
Although the reopening of Oxford was useful as a temporary measure, it would be costly to maintain the buildings, some of which are of great architectural and historical interest, beyond the next two years. It would be more effective to build an additional houseblock in an existing prison, which would not only provide modern accommodation, but also a greater degree of overall security than the minimum level of security available at Oxford. A programme is currently under way to build new houseblocks at a number of existing prisons, which is part of the Prison Service strategy for providing additional prison places. This is in addition to the rebuilding of Lowdham Grange as a Category B prison and the plans to build six new prisons under the Design Contract, Manage and Finance (DCMF) initiative announced by the Home Secretary on 2 September 1993.