Three major planks of the prison-building programme, designed to boost capacity by 20,000 places, are no longer considered achievable, according to the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA).
NISTA gave the verdicts in its first annual report since its creation in April, when it replaced the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) and National Infrastructure Commission.
The new body continues the IPA’s practice of publishing overall ratings on whether major government projects are on track to be delivered in line with issues such as scope, deadline and budget.
Three of the Ministry of Justice’s prison schemes have changed from an amber rating last year – meaning they had significant issues – to red, denoting “successful delivery of the project appears to be unachievable”.
Thousands of prisoners have been released from their sentences early since last summer due to overcrowding in the prison estate.
The collapse of tier-one contractor ISG in September 2024, one of the ministry’s top builders, is known to have exacerbated already-delayed and over-budget plans to create 20,000 prison places to keep up with demand.
One of the red-rated programmes is adding capacity to the Category D estate. ISG was awarded £155m worth of work on the programme, which focuses on open prisons, a year before the firm went under.
According to a National Audit Office (NAO) report last year, costs on the project were running at 115 per cent above their original business case per month before ISG’s administration.
The Houseblocks and Refurbishments Programme, providing 2,000 extra prison places, mostly in the closed category B and C estate, has also been downgraded to red.
Kier and Wates signed up to deliver £500m of programme work, across six sites, in June 2022.
Meanwhile, the Small Secure Houseblock Project – set to deliver about 1,200 places at Category C facilities via a repeatable, modular design – is now also thought to be undeliverable.
Last year’s NAO report said costs had increased by somewhere between £72m and £136m compared with the initial business case.
Three other projects, the Accelerated Houseblocks Programme, Rapid Deployment Cells and the largest – adding 10,000 places across four new prisons – remain amber-rated.
In January, it was revealed that the collapse of ISG would add £300m to the new prisons programme and would have an even bigger impact on fire-remediation efforts in the estate – which, in turn, would further hit capacity.
ISG was delivering around 17 per cent of the government’s 20,000 extra prison places under its expansion programme, amounting to 3,600 places across 13 sites, including HMP Grendon in Buckinghamshire, when it went into administration.
Last week Laing O’Rourke chief executive Cathal O’Rourke told Construction News that the contractor was still holding discussions with the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) about taking over the contract to build Grendon.
HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) executive director Jim Barton told a parliamentary committee in January: “Some projects could be delayed by up to about a year.
“It’s fair to say that ISG going into administration has been a significant issue and challenge for [the expansion programme].”
Amy Rees, then director general and chief executive of HMPPS, added that the organisation’s exposure was greater on the maintenance side than on the new prison places.
“[ISG was] involved, yes it will put at risk the completion by [the end of] 2027 but it won’t change the outcome, because if those places are not remediated by the end of 2027 we will take them out of action,” she said.
Rees was named as the new chief executive of Homes England last week.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “The government is delivering the largest expansion of prison places since the Victorian era – with 2,500 new spaces already delivered and 14,000 on track for delivery by 2031.
“These projects were progressing until a key supplier entered administration. We’ve already launched a re-procurement process and are moving forward with new suppliers.”
They added that the Small Secure Houseblocks programme was Red rated due to it requiring a new business case due to its costs rising. The revised case has now been approved and the project will have an Amber rating in 2025/26, they said.
Overall, 213 government projects were assessed and rated, with 68 of those being construction work.
The New Hospital Programme, which has had its scope changed, moved from red to amber in the latest report.
HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail remained red.
Sizewell C and the establishment of the Great British Nuclear quango were given ‘exempt’ ratings due to commercial considerations.
The reviews were carried out by the IPA in March, just ahead of its abolition.