24/10/2022
Cachella Smith
The MoJ has said that it has spent £1,168,572.25 on utility bills at defunct prisons since 2017.
The MoJ has said it has “vastly reduced” the cost to taxpayers as the latest figures were released.
The department spent £1.9m on bills in 2015/16 for bills at defunct prisons but by 2017/18 that figure had dropped to £278,107.64 and then by 2021/22 it was £103,774.57.
The bills cover heating, water electricity and sewage.
Figures released in 2017, showed that the MoJ had spent £11.214m between 2021/13 and 2016/17 on utility bills for prisons officially closed.
The department said at the time that the level of services were “reduced to that necessary to maintain the fabric of the buildings and ensure the sites remain safe and secure until final disposal”.
The decline in figures is down to the HM Prison and Probation Service offloading surplus properties and the utilities at sites closed for development, such as Glen Parva and Wellingborough, becoming the responsibility of developers during the works.
The level of services were “reduced to that necessary to maintain the fabric of the buildings and ensure the sites remain safe and secure until final disposal”.
The MoJ said that in the last decade it has raised £128m through the sale of former prison sites, and that any money spent on maintenance and utilities is to ensure taxpayers get the best possible return when they are sold.