Oral Answers to Questions — Justice – in the House of Commons at 2:30 pm on 10 November 2009.
David Jones
Shadow Minister (Wales)
2:30,
10 November 2009
What progress has been made on identifying a site for a new prison in north Wales.
Maria Eagle
Minister of State (Ministry of Justice) (also in Government Equalities Office), Minister of State (Government Equalities Office) (also in the Ministry of Justice)
I have just announced a new site search and identified north Wales as one of the site search areas. Officials are working with the Wales Office, the North Wales criminal justice board, the Welsh Assembly Government and local authorities to identify potential sites for a new prison. A shortlist of potential sites will be published in the spring.
David Jones
Shadow Minister (Wales)
The owners of the site at Caernarfon that the Ministry rejected were willing to sell it, fully remediated and with a commercially acceptable warranty, for a sum of £10 million. Given that the Ministry studiously refused to enter into any negotiations for the site and did not, so far as I can see, ever conduct any soil tests, how is the Minister able to say with such certainty-she has done so on several occasions-that it did not represent value for taxpayers' money?
Maria Eagle
Minister of State (Ministry of Justice) (also in Government Equalities Office), Minister of State (Government Equalities Office) (also in the Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice withdrew its interest in the site to which the hon. Gentleman refers because the due diligence procedures it undertook highlighted reasons why the site did not lend itself to prison development and did not represent value for money. That is why the decision was made. We are searching for suitable further sites, including in north Wales.
Rosie Cooper
Labour, West Lancashire
Will my hon. Friend the Minister please confirm the Secretary of State's response to me, as reported in the Hansard? He said:
"There will not be a prison in Scarisbrick" in my Constituency.-[ Hansard, 21 July 2009; Vol. 496, c. 747.]
John Bercow
Chair, Members Estimate Committee, Chair, Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, Speaker of the House of Commons, Chair, Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, Speaker of the House of Commons, Chair, Members Estimate Committee, Chair, Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, Chair, Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission
Order. I called Rosie Cooper because I thought her question would relate to the proposal for a new prison in north Wales and the identification of a site there, but I am afraid that we cannot discuss locations beyond north Wales.
Hywel Williams
Shadow PC Spokesperson (Education), Shadow PC Spokesperson (Work and Pensions), Shadow PC Spokesperson (Health), Shadow PC Spokesperson (International Development)
One of the great opportunities in establishing a prison in north Wales is to ensure that there are services for prisoners through the medium of Welsh. Can the Minister confirm that, with the greatly expanded numbers in the new prison, there will still be opportunities for specialist services such as psychology for prisoners through the medium of Welsh?
Maria Eagle
Minister of State (Ministry of Justice) (also in Government Equalities Office), Minister of State (Government Equalities Office) (also in the Ministry of Justice)
One of the reasons why north Wales is an area in which we are searching for a site for a new prison is that at present many prisoners from Wales have to serve their sentences outside their home area, for example in Merseyside. Clearly, if we are able to find a suitable site and build a prison there, that will present us with an opportunity to provide the specialist services the hon. Gentleman's constituents and others who are Welsh speakers require.
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