§ Mr. ByersTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many companies have expressed an interest in the financing, building and operation of the planned six new prisons; and how many are non-United Kingdom companies.
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§ 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. A. J. Butler to Mr. Stephen Byers dated 21 February 1994:
DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION, MANAGEMENT AND FINANCEThe Home Secretary has asked me, in Derek Lewis' absence from the office, to reply to your recent Question about the design, construction, management and finance of the new prisons.Detailed work has started on only two of the planned six new prisons. These will be at Fazakerley in Merseyside and Bridgend in South Wales. 52 companies expressed an interest in the design, construction, management and finance of these two proposed prisons and attended a bidders meeting in December. We have since received 10 proposals from companies and consortia. Each of these involves, to a varying extent, a number of other companies: in total 27 separate companies have a major interest. Of these, three were non-United Kingdom registered and three had non-United Kingdom registered parent companies. The remaining companies were registered in the United Kingdom.