§ Sir Geoffrey Johnson SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisons have completed all the design, town planning and public inquiry stages and are ready to commence building in the next financial year; and how many new prisons are in the course of construction.
§ Mr. Peter LloydResponsibility for these matters has been delegated to the Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter front A. J. Butler to Sir Geoffrey Johnson Smith, dated 3 February 1994.
The Home Secretary has asked me, in the absence of the Director General from the office, to reply to your recent Question about the new prison building programme.
There is one new prison currently under construction at Doncaster. This is due to open in the summer this year and will be the twenty-first prison to be built under the current programme.
A further six new prisons have been announced but it is not planned to begin construction of any of these in the next financial year, 1994–95.
Sites at Fazakerley in Merseyside and at Bridgend in South Wales have been identified for the first two prisons. The proposal to build a prison on the Fazakerley site was the subject of a non-statutory public local inquiry held between 26 October and 10 November 1993 and we are awaiting the outcome. We have outline planning clearance to build a prison on the site at Bridgend.