Prison to cost taxpayer £40m

WEST Lothian’s Addiewell Prison is to cost the taxpayer an average of £40 million a year for the next 22 years.

Treasury figures show that the private prison will ultimately cost more than £1 billion, despite costing Sodexo Justice Services (SJS), the consortium behind the PFI deal, just £80m to build it.

SJS was paid £30m last year but this figure is expected to rise to £55m in 2033, a year before the deal ends and the jail is transferred to public ownership.

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The firm also receives an additional payment when the prison is filled beyond capacity.

Scottish Prison Service (SPS) figures show Addiewell was paid £1.3m for providing extra prisoner places on top of its original 700 capacity between May 2011 and February this year.

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