Galliford Try has been awarded two major prison fire-safety upgrade contracts.
Yesterday (25 February), the contractor announced it won a £44.5m contract to deliver fire-safety improvements at the Grade II-listed HMP Wakefield (pictured) in West Yorkshire.
A contract notice published by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) on Thursday (20 February) showed it landed a similar job, worth £56m, at HMP Moorland in South Yorkshire.
A recent National Audit Office report noted that as of March 2024, a quarter of all prison places did not meet fire-safety standards.
The MoJ was aiming to make all prison cells fire safe by the end of 2027, but the work was set back due to the collapse of ISG, which was lined up for many of the jobs.
Amy Rees, director general and chief executive of HM Prison and Probation Service, told the Public Accounts Committee last month that the contractor’s collapse could lead to the closure of unsafe prison places after 2027.
“[ISG] were involved […] It will put at risk the completion by [the end of] 2027 but it won’t change the outcome, because if those places are not remediated by the end of 2027 we will take them out of action,” she said.
HMP Wakefield’s infrastructure was judged to be in very poor condition by independent prison inspectors in 2022. In February 2023, the MoJ said it was aiming for work to start on upgrading fire-safety at the Victorian facility by September 2023.
Galliford Try will upgrade fire compartmentalisation, emergency lighting, smoke extraction systems, fire alarms and misting reels at the West Yorkshire gaol.
Meanwhile, at Moorland its tasks are described as upgrading and replacing fire safety systems and infrastructure.
The building company’s contract at Moorland starts this month and runs until February 2030.
Galliford Try custodial and judicial director Steve Ripp said the work “reinforces Galliford Try’s expertise in delivering critical infrastructure in secure environments and underscores our commitment to helping the MoJ improve safety standards in the UK’s custodial facilities”.
