{"id":533866,"date":"2025-12-02T12:45:53","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T12:45:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/?p=533866"},"modified":"2025-12-09T17:15:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T17:15:08","slug":"moj-lost-24m-on-prison-capacity-programme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/buildings\/moj-lost-24m-on-prison-capacity-programme-02-12-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"MoJ lost \u00a324m on prison capacity programme"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) booked historical losses of \u00a324m on its programme to build new prison accommodation last year, it has been revealed.<\/p>\n

The ministry\u2019s \u201creactive approach\u201d to add 20,000 new prison places by 2031 was responsible for the size of the loss, according to the National Audit Office\u2019s (NAO) review of MoJ operations, published today (2 December).<\/p>\n

The public spending watchdog recommended the MoJ adopts \u201ca long-term strategy\u201d with longer-term funding, to push down its costs.<\/p>\n

The MoJ recorded \u201csignificant financial losses\u201d in 2024\/25 of \u00a358.5m, more than three times higher than its loss of \u00a316.5m the year before, the NAO said. The losses were booked on historical projects which had been cancelled or scaled back.<\/p>\n

In its annual report for 2024\/25, the MoJ attributed those losses to its “continued focus on delivering sites which provided greatest value for money”, which resulted in it writing off construction costs on scaled back projects on existing sites, and “supplier failure”.<\/p>\n

Construction projects accounted for more than 40 per cent of the ministry\u2019s overall deficit.<\/p>\n

In its report, the NAO also \u201chighlighted the importance of… joined-up planning and governance\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe recommended a long-term strategy to improve the resilience of the prison estate and to make the case for longer-term funding, since a reactive approach to building new prison places urgently had led to cost increases,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n

The NAO revealed the MoJ had \u201cconsistently underspent its capital budget\u201d since 2019\/20, \u201coften due to delays in the prison expansion programme\u201d.<\/p>\n

It recorded a capital budget underspend of \u00a3148m in 2024\/25.<\/p>\n

ISG\u2019s collapse last year \u2013 as well as ESS Modular\u2019s \u2013 also had an impact on the MoJ, the NAO said, reiterating its estimation that ISG\u2019s demise would add between three and 18 months<\/a> to the prison programmes it was working on.<\/p>\n

But the watchdog said the MoJ had \u201calready modelled the impact as a worst-case scenario when resetting timelines\u201d before ISG\u2019s insolvency. \u201cIt does not currently expect this to affect its revised portfolio completion date,\u201d the NAO added.<\/p>\n

ISG was the MoJ\u2019s contractor on 17 per cent of its prison expansion portfolio, amounting to 3,634 places across 13 sites.<\/p>\n

The government has been working to retender ISG\u2019s former prison projects. In October, for instance, Wates took over a \u00a373m prison works package<\/a> that ISG had been working on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) booked historical losses of \u00a324m on its programme to build new prison accommodation last year, it has been revealed. The ministry\u2019s \u201creactive approach\u201d to add 20,000 new prison places by 2031 was responsible for the size of the loss, according to the National Audit Office\u2019s (NAO) review of MoJ operations, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90643,"featured_media":363609,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[547,565,535],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-533866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buildings","category-government","category-isg","issue-online-news"],"yoast_head":"\nMoJ lost \u00a324m on prison capacity programme | Construction News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) booked historical losses of \u00a324m on its programme to build new prison accommodation last year, it has been revealed. 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