§ Mr. George HowarthTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what contractual provisions exist for overcrowding in(a) Her Majesty's prison Wolds, (b) Her Majesty's prison Blakenhurst and (c) Her Majesty's prison Doncaster; and if he will list in each case the occasions on which they were overcrowded and details of any additional payments made to the contractors. [40465]
§ Miss WiddecombeResponsibility 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.
Letter from Richard Tilt to Mr. George Howarth, dated 2 November 1995:
The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Question about overcrowding in the contractually-managed prisons.There is no contractual provision for overcrowding in Wolds or Blakenhurst prisons. In the contract for Doncaster prison, there is provision for the Prison Service to ask the contractor to accommodate 1,169 prisoners.Hitherto, it has not been Prison Service policy to overcrowd new prisons. In line with this policy none of these prisons have been overcrowded, although all prisons, whether in the public sector or the private sector, occasionally hold small numbers of prisoners above their normal capacity for operational reasons.No additional payments to cover overcrowding have been made to any of the contractors.