Government starts hunt for PFI prisons sites

The government has launched a search for sites on which to build three 1,500-place prisons.

The search, announced by justice minister Maria Eagle, will focus in London, the North West, and North Wales.

The Secretary of State for Justice Jack Straw has already revealed the preferred location for the first two sites: the site of the former Runwell Secure Psychiatric Hospital in Essex, and Beam Park West in Dagenham.

Seven consortia have been invited submit tenders to be included on a £1.8bn framework to design, build and operate the five prisons.

The seven consortia are:

• G4S/Carillion
• GEO Group/Balfour Beatty
• Kalyx/Interserve
• Mitie/Laing O'Rourke
• Reliance/Bouygues
• Serco/Skanska
• Wates Construction

In a written ministerial statement yesterday Eagle said: "These new prisons will allow us to modernise the estate by closing down older, inefficient and worn-out places. They will help protect the public and make communities safer by providing regimes to punish and reform offenders.

"Once a prison is established in an area, almost without exception the local community becomes very supportive of it. A prison is a source of secure, well paid employment and a focus for much volunteering."