Contracting at Wandsworth Prison - What is there to hide?
- leanlamb0
- 7 days ago
- 5 min read
Our struggle to find out the facts
Over the past 6 months WPIC has been seeking information from the Prison Service (more properly, His Majesty's Prison and Probation Service - HMPPS) in relation to expenditure in Wandsworth Prison, past and planned. Major capital projects are approved and managed by HMPPS centrally, and not by individual prisons. These matters do not relate immediately to conditions for prisoners, staff and visitors, our primary concern. However, if money is not being spent wisely, efficiently and on the correct priorities then this is wasted money that could be spent directly on improving conditions.
Our efforts to obtain information have been met with an ongoing, and concerning, policy of secrecy. We summarise below questions we have asked and responses we have received. The responses fall far short of an approach of openness and transparency which ought to be expected of any body controlling and spending public money. The Prison Service’s approach has been one, largely, of evasion and obfuscation, utilising various methods to avoid giving direct answers and providing information, including: delaying, ignoring questions, providing partial information, including obviously irrelevant information (a low-point being a whole paragraph on acoustic regulations), and asserting that documents and information must remain secret on unjustified grounds of commercial sensitivity and prejudice to prison security.
Having originally appeared to engage with our enquiries, not indicating that they were anything other than appropriate, reasonable and legitimate, the Prison Service, almost five months after the original queries, sought to simply shut the correspondence down. They stated that “we do not have the capacity to respond to your…questions and we do not consider that there is benefit to HMP Wandsworth or the prisoners detained there in continuing this correspondence.” The Prison Service further stated that, “The questions you have raised with us in correspondence cover the same ground as the Chief Inspector’s report.” This last point is inaccurate – if the answers to our questions were in the Inspector's report we would read them there. We believe that the enquiries we have raised are not ones within the remit of the Prison Inspectorate.
We are concerned at the lack of openness and transparency from the Prison Service. Such secrecy can (as spelt out by the Information Commissioner) only decrease public confidence in a public body's integrity and its ability to effectively allocate public funds.
We would suggest that the Wandsworth Governor being told by his bosses that he should not, as planned, speak at our WPIC public meeting on 7 May was a further indication of the Prison Service’s approach of being unwilling to engage with the public or address legitimate concerns. The Wandsworth Governor is working hard to improve the prison in incredibly difficult circumstances, and he has engaged with us, and has previously spoken at WPIC group meetings, in a spirit of constructive dialogue.
What we asked and what HMPPS told us
Healthcare Centre
A brand-new healthcare centre has been built in the prison at a cost of approximately £12m. It was due to open in October 2021. We are told that it finally started being used around three and a half years late, in May this year.
We asked for details of why the healthcare centre was built as it is The only explanation given is that it was intended to meet the requirements of Wandsworth Prison being recategorized as a "Remand Prison". This recategorization did not take place.
The Prison Service has refused access to any specification, scope or business case documentation or information. The stated ground for keeping this secret is that making them public could prejudice "the maintenance of security and good order in prisons". They have not justified this assertion.
An issue of primary concern that we sought answers about was that the new healthcare centre has no in-patient provision, despite the fact that existing in-patient provision was evidently appalling. The only response that we have received to our questions about why the chronic need for better in-patient provision was not addressed by the new healthcare centre is a statement that "the requirements did not include in-patient facilities."
Although the health centre is now open, we understand that it cannot provide dentistry services until September 2025. This is because the regulations relating to dentistry changed while the centre was being built. So the health centre was out of date before it was even open.
The full explanation provided by the Prison Service for the three and a half year delay in the opening of the centre, which the Independent Monitoring Board for the prison called a "major failure of procurement", is "fire door issues, outstanding completion of telecommunications systems and cabling, and problems with the air conditioning unit within the pharmacy facilities".
Shower Refurbishment Project
The Action Plan published by the Prison Service in August 2024, in response to the issuing by the Prisons Inspectorate of an Urgent Notification in May 2024, included a plan for shower refurbishment at a cost of £13m, to be completed by July 2029.
We have asked for details of the (very urgently needed) shower refurbishment. The only details that have been forthcoming are:
an indication that 50 showers are expected to be included in the project. We sought clarification, given that this would equate to a cost of £250,000 per shower, and none has been provided. Our best guess is that the figure of 50 showers relates to the first wing being refurbished.
an indication that it will take over a year to complete the refurbishment of showers on the first wing of eight, by around April 2026.
We have not been provided with any information on:
what works are included within the £13m plan, including specifically how many showers, and what cost this works out at per shower.
why the cost is as high as it seems - we estimated £65,000 per shower and this has not been challenged.
what steps have been taken to ensure that this project will provide the best possible value for money.
The Prison Service has insisted that all specification, invitation to tender and other contractual information must remain secret to protect the commercial interests of the Prison Service and because making information relating to showers public could prejudice "the maintenance of security and good order in prisons", in each case with no further justification. The Information Commissioner's Office makes clear that disclosing commercial information "makes you more accountable to the public for how you spend public money".
Window Replacement Project
The Action Plan published by the Prison Service in August 2024 included a plan for window replacement at a cost of £22m, to be completed by October 2027.
We have been informed that approximately 1520 individual window units will be replaced. That translates to an average cost of £14,473 per window.
Just six months after the Action Plan envisaged this work being completed by October 2027, we were informed that this project would take approximately four to five years from March 2025.
We are told that replacing the windows is an urgent priority to reduce opportunities for the supply of drugs by drone to broken windows.
Our questions about why the costs are at the stated level and whether the project represents good value for money have been ignored.
Works to improve the infrastructure at Wandsworth Prison are badly needed. But HMPPS's approach to contracting seems to result in large bills and long delays. Why?
