§ Jackie BallardTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the stage reached in the planning process for all sites under consideration for future use(a) as prisons, (b) secure training centres and (c) other secure facilities. [114758]
§ Mr. BoatengAs I stated in the reply I gave to the hon. Member on 21 February 2000,Official Report, columns 813–14W, tenders for two new prisons have been let and these prisons are currently under construction at Rye Hill, at Onley near Rugby and Marchington in East Staffordshire. Later this year it is planned to issue tenders for the procurement of a further two prisons at Ashford in Middlesex and Peterborough. There is outline planning permission for both but detailed approval will be needed once the designs are finalised. The Prison Service also has outline planning permission for a new prison at Maghull on Merseyside and is discussing with the local planning authority the submission of a planning application for a new prison in Woolwich, South East London.
460WThe Home Office recently acquired the site of the former Youth Training Centre at St. Charles in Brentwood for development as a Secure Training Centre (STC). An application for outline planning permission will be submitted to the local planning authority shortly. This, with the STCs already open at Medway near Rochester, Rainsbrook near Rugby and Hassockfield near Consett in Co. Durham, would bring the STC estate to four establishments with a fifth site yet to be identified.
Other secure facilities for which the Home Office is directly responsible are immigration detention centres. A planning application to redevelop the former Aldington prison near Ashford in Kent as a new purpose-built immigration detention centre has been submitted to the local planning authority. The Immigration and Nationality Department is also preparing a planning application to redevelop its Harmondsworth site near Heathrow Airport to provide another new purpose-built immigration detention centre. These form part of the proposals for implementing the recent White Paper about firmer, fairer and faster immigration controls.