Prisons (Building Costs) (Hansard, 30 October 1996)

§ Miss Widdecombe

Responsibility 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 Richard Tilt to Mr. Chris Davies, dated 30 October 1996: The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Question about projected costs of building new prisons and detention centres through the private finance initiative and payments made to the private sector for all new prisons and detention centres for the first five years of their existence. Under the Private Finance Initiative the Prison Service will be paying for the building and operation of new prisons as a single package. The cost of the total service (net present value) over 25 years for the three new prisons either under construction or where construction is expected to commence shortly, is £643 million, comprising £247m for Fazakerley; £266m for Bridgend; and £130m for Lowdham Grange. While we are unable to provide information about building costs only, the estimated values of the contractors' overall project costs are £77m each for Fazakerley and Bridgend and £37m for Lowdham Grange. The anticipated payments for the first five years of their operation are estimated as follows:

£ million
	1997–98	1998–99	1999–2000	2000–01	2001–02
Fazakerley	1.75	24.95	25.70	26.05	26.05
Bridgend	1.75	22.75	24.95	25.65	25.65
Lowdham Grange	0.70	13.75	12.50	12.55	12.55
Total	4.20	61.45	63.15	64.25	64.25

The 1997–98 estimated payments are based on the following opening dates: Fazakerley, December 1997; Bridgend, December 1997; and Lowdham Grange, January 1998. The estimated payments for 1998–99 have been re-priced up to 2000–01. The costs stated for 2001–02 are at 2000–01 prices as the year 2001–02 is outside the PES period.

145W