Collapse of construction group ISG halts urgent work on UK prisons

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The collapse of construction group ISG has halted urgent repairs on the UK’s dilapidated prisons, including work to upgrade security and tackle drug smuggling at Manchester Prison.

The government had contracted ISG for at least 27 prison construction projects, with a number of those already started and now closed down, according to communications seen by the Financial Times.

Five of these were part of a programme to expand the prison estate and deal with the severe overcrowding that over the past year has forced the early release of thousands of convicts.

The remainder involved upgrades to fire safety, security and other infrastructure amid efforts to repair buildings that watchdogs warn are endangering prisoners and risking escapes. 

The work included a project to secure Manchester Prison, according to a person familiar with the matter, where a recent report found 39 per cent of prisoners had failed drug tests.

The report published by HM Inspectorate of Prisons this month warned that the facility was “plagued by drones delivering illicit items”, due to a failing CCTV system and delays installing more secure cell windows.

As the new Labour government seeks contractors to replace ISG, delays securing Manchester and other sites will further complicate its efforts to tackle what prisons minister Lord James Timpson has described as “a system teetering on the edge of disaster”. 

ISG’s administrators EY said last month that no further work would be undertaken on the group’s UK contracts. The company’s collapse has become the most high-profile in the sector since government contractor Carillion went into administration in 2018, once again prompting questions about the businesses that the UK depends on to maintain its public infrastructure.

Inheriting an underfunded prison estate that has operated at 99 per cent capacity since the start of 2023, including a number of Victorian-era buildings, Labour ministers are under pressure to build more cells while also preventing existing ones from falling into disrepair.

Forty-two per cent of the country’s 119 prisons were rated of “concern” or “serious concern” during the year ending March 2024, up from 37 per cent the previous year, according to the justice ministry.

In a nationwide survey published last month, HM Inspectorate of Prisons criticised several “filthy” prisons that had become infested with damp, rats and insects.

And Tom Wheatley, the president of the Prison Governors Association, revealed last week that “electronic perimeter security systems [were] not fully operational in some of our prisons holding the most dangerous prisoners”.

The Ministry of Justice said: “We have robust contingency plans in place to mitigate the impact on our prison and court estate of ISG going into administration.”

It added: “We are working with administrators and will find alternative ways to deliver these projects where necessary.”