§ Ms. EagleTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what companies his Department has been in contact with regarding the proposal to moor prison ships in Birkenhead and Barrow;
(2) what timetable he is considering for the possible establishment of floating prisons;
(3) what is the estimated cost of hiring staffing and maintaining prison ships in the Wallasey or Birkenhead docks.
§ Mr. Peter LloydResponsibility for this matter has been delegated to the director general of the prison service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from Mr. D. Lewis to Ms Angela Eagle, dated 26 July 1993:
The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Questions about prison ships.Maritime detention facilities are one of the options being considered as part of a Prison Service contingency planning exercise. This exercise is intended to identify options for coping with levels of prisoner population that exceed the available accommodation. A number of sites with the necessary docking facilities are being reviewed, but no decision has been taken on the feasibility of this option.As consideration of the option is at such an early stage, it is not possible to give the details of costs. Nor have there been any decisions on which companies could supply the accommodation.As the contacts so far have been of a very preliminary nature and any decision to proceed with this option might involve a competitive tender, details of individual companies interested could not properly be revealed at this stage.