Serco scoops Harmondsworth detention centre

Serco, in jv with Wackenhut Corrections, has been awarded the contract to design, build, manage and operate the new 326-bed immigration detention centre and short-term holding facility at Harmondsworth, Middlesex.

The contract comprises the construction of the new facility valued at £48m and an eight-year operating concession, worth approximately £18m per year. Skanska will build the centre, which needs to be ready to accept its first detainee in summer 2004.

The Home Office had to retender the job after an internal redesign became necessary following the Yarl's Wood fire last February.