ISG has been picked for a £155m programme to deliver 780 prison places across three sites.
The contractor will build Category D houseblocks with 60 single-occupancy rooms, as well as ancillary rooms, for the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) via a FAC-1 Alliance contract.
ISG was selected via the Crown Commercial Services Framework and is currently working on a preconstruction contract worth £6.5m, with a main contract to be inked at a later date.
The work is part of the MoJ’s £4bn investment programme to create an additional 20,000 prison places across the UK by the mid-2020s.
ISG said the Category D expansion programme was “a critical component in the MoJ’s strategy to provide the right type of prison accommodation to meet the forecasted prison population by the middle of the decade”.
Category D (or “open”) prisons feature the lowest security, allowing prisoners to spend their days away from prison on license to carry out work, education or other programmes.
ISG added: “The core focus on a highly sustainable construction methodology and stretching social-value targets – encompassing material and product specification, build processes, supply-chain engagement and operational performance of the new buildings – supports the MoJ’s net-zero and enhanced-rehabilitation ambitions.”
ISG sector director Alistair McNeil said: “The significant expansion and investment in the UK’s prison estate is a major undertaking and the MoJ should be recognised for its bold and innovative procurement approach that supports such challenging objectives.
“Incentivising behaviours that foster collaboration, knowledge-sharing, transparency and operational performance creates a culture of innovation leading to consistently better-built outcomes, benefiting the prison population and wider society.”
ISG was the contractor that received the most money from the MoJ in the latter’s 2022/23 financial year. ISG is delivering its single-largest refurbishment project to date for the MoJ – a £61m upgrade scheme at HMP Birmingham. Itis also one of four project partners on the MoJ’s pioneering £1bnNew Prisons Programme Alliance.
