05 July 2002
In a scathing attack on Scottish Executive policy, members of the cross-party Justice Committee – responding to proposals put forward by a Scottish Prison Services estates review – said the plan for privately built, privately run prisons had not been properly costed nor adequately compared with alternatives.
The MSPs vented their anger at the 'paucity of research' carried out by the SPS review when looking into another option – privately built, publicly operated prisons.
They said semi-private prisons had worked in other countries such as France and Belgium and called on Justice Minister Jim Wallace to look into this option before it was too late.
The committee said the Scottish Executive should make its final decision 'based on the public interest, and not on the financial interests of private operators'.
Christine Grahame, the justice committee convener, said: 'Our investigation found that the Executive's review was based on inadequate financial and performance information, making accurate comparisons between private and public provision almost impossible.'
The SPS review, published in March, calculated that the private option would cost £700m.This was 50% cheaper than two other options considered, both of which involved retaining public sector control of services, including the semi-private alternative. Currently, Scotland has only one private prison – Kilmarnock.
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