Launch

A signed prison contract and 110 million pounds to speed the programme

By Staff Writer  |  01-09-2026

The Ministry of Justice has announced 110 million pounds to accelerate construction of prison places, and has confirmed that a contract has been signed for the first phase of works on a new 1,700 place prison in Lancashire. The money is fast tracked from existing budgets rather than new. Neither the contractor nor the value of the Lancashire contract is published.

The department says the money will speed up construction of hundreds of prison places, as part of plans to add 14,000 extra spaces by 2031. It also says there will be investment to purchase new land to secure potential sites for future prisons and to build what it calls a credible pipeline for more prison building later.

The contract is announced but not identified. No contractor, no value, no site name and no programme dates are given for the 1,700 place scheme.

Where the places are coming from

Most of what the 110 million pounds buys is conversion rather than new build. The department states that it will see existing space within prisons converted into cells, and it names unused office space, laundry rooms and storage areas as the space in question. That is refurbishment inside a live, secure and occupied estate, which is a different trade from building a prison on a green field.

Work of that kind carries its own cost drivers, and none of them appear in the announcement. Access to an occupied wing is controlled and intermittent. Materials and plant are searched on the way in. Escorted working and tool control change productivity assumptions. Fire, escape and observation requirements govern what a converted store or office can lawfully become. A conversion programme measured in cells delivered will be priced very differently from one measured in floor area.

The second element is land acquisition for future prisons. The department gives no budget for it, no number of sites and no locations, and it does not say whether the purchases are options, conditional contracts or freehold acquisitions. What it does say is that the purpose is to secure potential sites and build a pipeline, which places the spend ahead of any planning decision rather than after one.

What the Lord Chancellor said

The announcement carries a statement from the Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary, Alex Norris, made on the day he was due to update Parliament on sentencing changes.

This Government is serious about fixing the broken prison system we inherited, which is why we've already delivered more than 3,200 prison places in just two years. We're now investing to boost these efforts further, getting spades in the ground quicker to deliver thousands more places to lock up dangerous criminals and keep the public safe.

Alex Norris, Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary

The same statement confirms a further 18.9 million pounds for victim support services, which the department records as also reprioritised from existing budgets and as sitting on top of 550 million pounds announced previously over three years. That element funds services rather than works.

Reading the money

The important qualification is in the notes rather than the headline. The department states that the 110 million pounds has been fast-tracked from existing budgets so that prison places can be delivered more quickly. On its own terms this is a re-phasing of money already allocated, not an addition to the capital programme. For a contractor that distinction decides whether the announcement signals new work coming to market or the same work arriving sooner.

The department also states that it is spending more than three times as much on building new prisons as was spent over the previous seven years. It publishes no figures for either period alongside that claim, so the comparison cannot be checked from this record and is reported here as the department's own statement.

What is established is narrower than the headline. A contract has been signed for the first phase of a 1,700 place prison in Lancashire. Hundreds of further places are to come from converting space inside existing prisons. The target is 14,000 additional places by 2031, and 3,200 places are stated as already delivered in two years. Everything else, including who is building any of it and for how much, is not on the record.