Ministry of Justice and National Offender Management Service : managing the prison estate, fifty-third report of session 2013-14, report, together with formal minutes related to the report

The National Offender Management Service (the Agency) is responsible for the prison system in England and Wales which holds around 84,000 prisoners.

The prison estate consists of some 130 prisons of varying layout, geographical location, age and state of repair.

The main factor behind the Agency's estate strategy, of closing small costly prisons and building new accommodation that is cheaper to run, is the need to make recurring savings.

Under the strategy, the Agency had by the end of 2013, closed 13 prisons and built two new prisons.

The estate strategy's objectives are to reduce resource costs; create durable, good standard accommodation and provide an estate that better meets offenders' needs, allowing more of them to work and be kept closer to their homes.

Against these objectives, the Agency has built new, good quality, accommodation to time and within budget; is on track to achieve cost reductions of GBP70 million a year; and is starting to match better the geographical spread of prisons to the prison population. Key factors behind this good performance are that senior staff in the Agency have experience and knowledge and have remained in post throughout this period of change.

However, the performance of the two new prisons, HMP Oakwood and HMP Thameside, has been poor and disappointing since they opened.

They do not give sufficient priority to meeting offenders' rehabilitation needs, nor do they provide enough quality purposeful activity for prisoners.

The Agency has also closed some prisons that were performing well.