ISG has been selected for a £155m scheme to deliver 780 prison places across three sites.
The contractor will build category D housing blocks with 60 single rooms, as well as ancillary rooms, for the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) under a FAC-1 Alliance contract.
ISG was selected through the Crown Commercial Services Framework and is currently working on a £6.5m pre-construction contract, with a main contract to be signed at a later date.
The work is part of the MoJ’s £4 billion investment program to create an extra 20,000 prison places across the UK by the mid-2020s.
ISG said the Category D expansion program was “a critical component in the Ministry of Justice’s strategy to provide the right type of prison accommodation to meet the expected prison population by mid-decade”.
Category D (or “open”) prisons have the lowest security, allowing inmates to spend their days outside the prison on license to carry out work, education or other programs.
ISG added: “The core focus on a highly sustainable construction methodology and on expanding social value objectives, including material and product specification, construction processes, supply chain involvement and the operational performance of the new buildings, supports the MoJ’s improved net zero rehabilitation ambitions”.
ISG Sector director Alistair McNeil said: “Significant expansion and investment in the UK’s prison estate is a major undertaking and the Ministry of Justice should be recognized for its bold and innovative procurement approach which supports to such challenging goals.
“Encouraging behaviors that encourage collaboration, knowledge sharing, transparency and operational performance creates a culture of innovation that leads to continuously improving outcomes, benefiting the prison population and society at large.”
ISG was the contractor that received the most money from the Ministry of Justice in the latter’s 2022/23 financial year. ISG is delivering its biggest refurbishment project to date for the MoJ – a £61m upgrade scheme at HMP Birmingham. this it is also one of four partners in the MoJ’s pioneering £1 billion project New Alliance of the Prison Program.
