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Written question asked by Richard Burgon (Labour) on Wednesday, 10 January 2018, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 15 January 2018 (named day). It was answered by Rory Stewart (Conservative) on Monday, 15 January 2018 on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.

Prisons: Expenditure

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 8 January 2018 to Question 120491, for what reasons his Department is unable to provide a year-to-year comparison of the budget for prisons in England and Wales broken down as requested in that question.

Answer

The requested information is not recorded centrally as this is not a business requirement nor is it required under any accounting regulation. However, as suggested in my previous answer, our published prison unit cost data, where web details were enclosed, provides resource cost figures for previous years. Within the data, the most recent cost information contains restated figures to enable a more fair comparison between the two years.

In respect of cost related to collate the information requested, we would need carry out a revaluation pricing exercise for all prisons for each year since 2010 to provide any accurate comparable data. This would exceed the Department’s cost limit of £850 for answering a parliamentary question. We estimate a minimum cost of around £3,000 to create and collate this information separately.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
122014
Session
2017-19
Related items
Prisons: Expenditure
Monday, 8 January 2018
Written questions
House of Commons
Grouped for answer
Yes
Subjects
Expenditure Prisons
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk