A choice by the MoJ to sign a decade-long lease for a prison where elevated levels of a poisonous gas had been detected is expected to cost the UK taxpayer more than £100 million, a parliamentary spending watchdog has concluded.
An Agreement Signed ''Rashly'
The lease signed in 2022 to rent HMP Dartmoor was finalised "in a state of alarm" by senior civil servants who were looking to ensure prison capacity, the panel stated.
This category C prison, which housed many individuals convicted of sexual offences, was closed in 2024 after the radioactive gas levels as high as 10 times the safe limit were measured in some areas. The government has since acknowledged it was informed that "raised readings" of the gas were detected in 2020.
Radon, a colourless and odourless radioactive gas, is linked to about 1,100 lung cancer-related deaths in the UK annually, according to public health authorities.
Failure to Negotiate a 'Good Deal'
A findings issued by the committee concluded that civil servants from the prison service were unable to secure "a good deal" and signed the lease in 2022 prior to conducting additional radon surveys.
"Under the terms of the deal, the department cannot exit the lease until at least December 2033. In total, the prison service is currently shelling out around £4 million per year for an uninhabitable prison. This includes lease payments, business rates and security costs," the report detailed.
"On top of this, the public must pay additional costs – around £68 million – on structural works to the Dartmoor site over the period of the lease," the report stated.
An Absolute Disgrace 'From Top to Bottom'
The committee's Conservative chair labelled the MoJ's handling of HMP Dartmoor as "a scandal, from top to bottom".
He stated: "We heard arguments that the leasing of this unusable building, known for years by the prison service to be choked with radon gas with all the implications that entailed, was prudent, driven by the need for prison places."
"The panel dismisses this rationale completely. Dartmoor appears to the committee [to be] a perfect example of a department seeking a solution, any solution, in a state of crisis," he said.
"The authorities must now answer to us on what it has taken away from this costly mistake."
Closure and Relocation of Prisoners
The move to shutter the jail, necessitating the transfer of 682 prisoners, followed years of testing and attempts to reduce the radon levels. Prison officers at the prison began measuring levels in 2010, but the final inmates and staff were not moved out until July 2024.
Concerns have since been asked about whether the prison service could have taken action earlier.
In a written answer in July last year, the MoJ stated: "High radon readings were first detected at Dartmoor in 2020." Other information show that radon gas levels higher than the safe limit were also detected as far back as 2007.
Lawsuits and Ongoing Investigation
Over 500 former inmates and prison officers are filing lawsuits against the government, arguing their wellbeing was endangered.
An inquiry into radon levels at the prison begun by the workplace safety regulator in 2023 is still continuing.
The leader of the Prison Officers Association supported the report. "It is shocking that such a failure has not led to consequences for the high-ranking individuals that not only placed everyone within Dartmoor prison at risk but also wasted millions of pounds of taxpayer funds," he stated.
Defence of the Decision
Speaking to MPs in October, the MoJ's top civil servant defended the decision to enter into the 10-year Dartmoor lease in 2022.
"At that time, the prison system was at threat of facing a shortage of prison capacity, and Dartmoor supplied over 600 places," she argued. "A pragmatic and pragmatic decision was made in March, when the full picture that we have now was not to hand, that it was required, given the issues the government were dealing with, to execute the lease and keep Dartmoor open."
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson stated: "This action was made in 2022. This government took over a critical situation in our prisons system, where prisons were on the verge of collapse, threatening a complete collapse in law and order."
