§ Mr. McAllionTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether in-house bids will be permitted for the running of new prisons.
§ Mr. Peter LloydThe current policy is not to invite in-house bids for the management of new prisons. In the case of Doncaster, which is the last of the current prison building programme, the prison board decided that it did not wish to make an in-house bid and that there was, therefore, no reason to change the current policy. This is to enable the prison service to focus its resources on developing the best possible bids for existing establish-ments. No decision has been made about the policy on in-house bids for any new prisons which might be built in the future.