§ Ms Roseanna CunninghamTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many new private prisons are currently being built; and in each case what is the(a) expected date of opening and (b) planned prisoner population; [22119]
(2) how many private prisons are currently in operation in England and Wales; and for each, when it opened, where it is located and what is its current prisoner population. [22118]
§ Ms Quin[holding answer 22 December 1997]: Details of the six prisons in England and Wales that are managed by the private sector are as follows:
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HM prison Location Date of opening Population on 18 December 1997 Altcourse Merseyside 1 December 1997 193 Blakenhurst Worcestershire 26 May 1993 768 Buckley Hall Greater Manchester 14 December 1994 836 Doncaster South Yorkshire 20 June 1994 1,053 Parc South Wales 17 November 1997 215 Wolds Humberside 6 April 1992 402 Blakenhurst, Buckley Hall, Doncaster and the Wolds prisons were transferred from Prison Service management to private sector management on the dates shown. Altcourse and Parc were built under the Private Finance Initiative.
One prison is under construction in England and Wales under the Private Finance Initiative: Her Majesty's Prison Lowdham Grange, Nottinghamshire, which is scheduled to open by the end of February 1998 with planned capacity for 500 prisoners when it is fully operational.