SNP plan to scrap private jails 'will cost £750m'

Published on Sunday 20 May 2007 00:39

PLANS to build two new prisons using private money are set to be scrapped by the SNP, in the first major change of policy since it gained power at Holyrood.

Labour insiders claim the plans will cost as much as 750m over the next 20 years, and will lead to lengthy delays in easing the current overcrowding crisis.

The move to bring two jail projects back into public control will place the SNP in direct conflict with prison chiefs and civil servants who have already started signing off the deals with private firms to construct the desperately needed institutions.

The row centres on two 700-capacity prisons at Low Moss near Bishopbriggs and in Addiewell in West Lothian. Construction work has already begun at Addiewell, with a private consortium having been given the contract to start. A bid to construct Low Moss in the public sector was knocked back by prison chiefs earlier this month, paving the way for another private deal.

The SNP insists that moving the two jails into the public sector will bring an end to firms profiteering from imprisonment and - in the long term - benefit the public purse.

The decision by the new SNP government to challenge the move is set to be one of the first major flashpoints of its period in office.

New Cabinet Secretary for Justice, Kenny MacAskill, is expected to meet chiefs from the Scottish Prison Service this week.

The new SNP administration has made the matter an "urgent priority" as they seek to prevent more private-public partnerships being introduced.

The two new jails were first backed by ministers in 2002 to house 1,400 inmates. An SNP source said: "We are committed to our position. There is no contract signed at Low Moss so it is simply a matter for ministers to decide over. We will look at Addiewell as well."

The SNP has said previously it may consider building the new jails through not-for-profit trusts. It argues that, over the long term, such deals would be far cheaper because the government would not have to pay out hefty fees to the private firms who run them.

But Labour insiders insist that bringing Low Moss into the public sector would increase costs from 750m over the next 20 years to more than 1.5bn.

• It emerged last night that Alex Salmond is to seek permission from the International Olympic Committee for Scotland to field its own team in the 2012 Games in London.

Scotland's new First Minister is to hold talks with the country's main sporting bodies within the next 100 days to draft a formal application.

Separate representation at the Games has long been an SNP ambition, with Salmond believing that Scottish sport has been in Britain's shadow for too long.