Recommendations & Conclusions
10 items
2
Recommendation
59th Report - Ministry of Justice follo…
Acknowledged
Despite closing the prison in August 2024, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and HMPPS still do not have clear plans for the future of Dartmoor. MoJ previously assured us that its aim was to remediate HMP Dartmoor and bring it back into safe use. However, over a year since HMPPS …
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Despite closing the prison in August 2024, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and HMPPS still do not have clear plans for the future of Dartmoor. MoJ previously assured us that its aim was to remediate HMP Dartmoor and bring it back into safe use. However, over a year since HMPPS closed the prison, MoJ and HMPPS still do not have clear plans for how and when they will do this, and are less certain that reopening the site will represent the best value for money. HMPPS is waiting for the outcome of a Health and Safety Executive review of current workplace regulations on radon 3 before it assesses what work it would need to do to the site and by when. Once the review is complete, MoJ and HMPPS plan to base their decision about whether or not to reopen on whether continuing with the works represents the best value for money for taxpayers. recommendation Once it has decided on its proposed approach to remediating the Dartmoor site, the Ministry of Justice and HM Prison and Probation Service should write to the Committee and set out in detail: • its assessment of any proposed works against the Accounting Officer tests of regularity, propriety, feasibility and value for money; • its estimate of when the prison will be fit for use and how much the remediation will cost. • that it will continue to assess whether best value for money is served by continuing to spend money on an unoccupied prison or try to negotiate an early exit from the lease by carrying out a full commercial negotiation with proper professional advice.
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Government response AI summary
The government agrees that a decision on remediating Dartmoor has been made. However, the response is truncated and does not explicitly commit to providing the detailed assessment, cost estimates, or value-for-money analysis to the Committee as requested.
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HM Treasury
1
Conclusion
59th Report - Ministry of Justice follo…
Acknowledged
We took evidence from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) and the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) to follow up on our recent scrutiny of several topics. This included HMPPS’s management of the lease renewal at HMP Dartmoor, MoJ and LAA’s response to the previous Committee’s …
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We took evidence from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) and the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) to follow up on our recent scrutiny of several topics. This included HMPPS’s management of the lease renewal at HMP Dartmoor, MoJ and LAA’s response to the previous Committee’s 2024 report on legal aid and their management of the recent LAA cyberattack.
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Government response AI summary
The government acknowledges the committee's work and outlines lessons learned from the Dartmoor lease negotiations, including improved radon policies and embedding learning into future decision-making for estates projects.
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HM Treasury
7
Conclusion
59th Report - Ministry of Justice follo…
Acknowledged
HMPPS acknowledged that it would have been helpful to have more information on the density of radon at the Dartmoor site prior to the lease negotiations.11 However, it bizarrely maintained that signing the lease without undertaking a recent survey was sensible, given the prison capacity crisis at the time. It …
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HMPPS acknowledged that it would have been helpful to have more information on the density of radon at the Dartmoor site prior to the lease negotiations.11 However, it bizarrely maintained that signing the lease without undertaking a recent survey was sensible, given the prison capacity crisis at the time. It argued that in the context of needing to spend over £600 per cell per night to temporarily hold prisoners in police cells under Operation Safeguard, £1.5 million a year for 640 prison places felt like good value for money.12 MoJ also stated that it put mitigation measures in 5 HC Committee of Public Accounts, Value for money from legal aid, Thirty-Third Report of Session 2023-24, HC 481, 24 May 2024. 6 HMT, Treasury Minutes, 5 September 2024 7 HMG, “Legal Aid Agency data breach”, accessed on 22 November 2025 8 Committee of Public Accounts, Improving family court services for children, oral evidence, HC 883, 23 June 2025 9 Letter from the Ministry of Justice concerning HMP Dartmoor, 21 October 2025 10 Letter from Ministry of Justice concerning HMP Dartmoor, 2 October 2025 11 Qq 7, 11 12 Q 15 8 place following the results of the June 2022 survey but that it was a later cell-by-cell survey which led, following discussions with the Health and Safety Executive, to the decision to close the prison in 2024.13
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Government response AI summary
The government acknowledges it would have been beneficial to have a comprehensive understanding of radon presence before making a decision on the lease. HMPPS has improved radon policies, procedures, and training and are embedding learning from Dartmoor into future decision-making.
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HM Treasury
8
Conclusion
59th Report - Ministry of Justice follo…
Acknowledged
Under the terms agreed HMPPS cannot terminate the new lease until after December 2033. The cost of the lease is £1.5 million a year, a slight increase on the £1.44 million it was paying when the lease expired in December 2023.14 We asked HMPPS what the total costs of keeping …
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Under the terms agreed HMPPS cannot terminate the new lease until after December 2033. The cost of the lease is £1.5 million a year, a slight increase on the £1.44 million it was paying when the lease expired in December 2023.14 We asked HMPPS what the total costs of keeping the empty prison running were. It explained that there are several ongoing costs in addition to the £1.5 million a year in rent, including business rates of £300,000 per year and additional security costs, which it said it was exploring how to minimise.15 In total MoJ confirmed that the fixed costs associated with running the prison are around £4 million per year, including rent, rates, utilities and security costs.16 In addition there is a requirement for the government to pay additional costs (around £68 million) on fabric improvements to the Dartmoor site over the period of the lease.17
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Government response AI summary
HMPPS has significantly improved and implemented updated radon policies and procedures, and training for employees, to ensure the effective management of radon and is embedding learning from Dartmoor into future decision-making, to ensure that any future contracts deliver value for money.
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HM Treasury
9
Conclusion
59th Report - Ministry of Justice follo…
Acknowledged
Given their knowledge that radon had previously been detected at the site, we asked MoJ and HMPPS why they had not negotiated an earlier exit term, or provisions to change the terms if radon levels were to increase so that the prison became partially or wholly unusable. MoJ stated that …
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Given their knowledge that radon had previously been detected at the site, we asked MoJ and HMPPS why they had not negotiated an earlier exit term, or provisions to change the terms if radon levels were to increase so that the prison became partially or wholly unusable. MoJ stated that HMPPS had negotiated a shorter break clause compared with the previous lease and that the rent is only marginally more than it was previously. It argued that these terms seemed reasonable and good value for money at the time, but acknowledged that with hindsight it may have acted differently.18 Plans for bringing the site back into use
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Government response AI summary
The government acknowledges it would have been beneficial to have a comprehensive understanding of radon presence before making a decision on the lease. HMPPS has improved radon policies, procedures, and training and are embedding learning from Dartmoor into future decision-making.
Read full response →
HM Treasury
10
Conclusion
59th Report - Ministry of Justice follo…
Acknowledged
In our January 2025 session on prison estate capacity, MoJ stressed that it aimed to remediate HMP Dartmoor and bring it back into use if it could find a technical solution to radon issues at the site.19 MoJ reiterated that this remains its ambition as it does not want to …
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In our January 2025 session on prison estate capacity, MoJ stressed that it aimed to remediate HMP Dartmoor and bring it back into use if it could find a technical solution to radon issues at the site.19 MoJ reiterated that this remains its ambition as it does not want to lose permanently the capacity the prison provides.20 It explained that it had engaged a wide range of suppliers, including radon mitigation specialists, the UK Health Security Agency, independent Radon Protection Advisers and airflow engineers, 13 Qq 14-15, 18 14 Letter from Ministry of Justice concerning HMP Dartmoor, 2 October 2025 15 Qq 31-32 16 Letter from the Ministry of Justice, 6 November 2025 17 Qq 22-23 18 Qq 16, 18 19 Prison estate capacity, HC 366, 27 January 2025, Qq 125-128 20 Q 17 9 for their expertise on addressing radon issues.21 This included advice on long-term plans to reduce radon levels to safe levels, to allow the prison to be reoccupied.
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Government response AI summary
The MoJ and HMPPS will write to the Committee once the proposed approach to remediating Dartmoor has been decided.
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HM Treasury
16
Recommendation
59th Report - Ministry of Justice follo…
Acknowledged
For a decade, this Committee and its predecessors have urged MoJ to get a better understanding of the wider costs of its legal aid reforms. A 2015 report noted the lack of analysis MoJ had undertaken of the wider impacts of the reforms on itself and other government departments and …
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For a decade, this Committee and its predecessors have urged MoJ to get a better understanding of the wider costs of its legal aid reforms. A 2015 report noted the lack of analysis MoJ had undertaken of the wider impacts of the reforms on itself and other government departments and stressed that it needed to do more.33 In its 2024 report, the previous Committee noted that while MoJ acknowledged that the removal of most early legal advice via its reforms was likely to have led to additional costs to the public sector, its progress in measuring the scale of these costs 29 Qq 33, 59 30 Q 59 31 Letter from the Ministry of Justice, 6 November 2025 32 Public Law Project (MOJ0004) 33 Committee of Public Accounts, Implementing reforms to civil legal aid, Thirty-sixth Report of Session 2014–15, HC 808, 4 February 2015 12 was disappointing. The Committee acknowledged that it would not be possible to get a precise figure on these costs, but stressed the need for MoJ to take further action to better understand these costs.34
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Government response AI summary
The government agrees and states the department has written to the Committee, alongside the Treasury Minute response, setting out the results of its survey of local authorities and any further investigations planned.
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HM Treasury
18
Recommendation
59th Report - Ministry of Justice follo…
Acknowledged
We asked MoJ what work it had done to better understand the effects of its legal aid reforms on local authorities and their legal advice services. MoJ said that it has surveyed local authorities to understand where they were providing additional legal advice and why, but it told us that …
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We asked MoJ what work it had done to better understand the effects of its legal aid reforms on local authorities and their legal advice services. MoJ said that it has surveyed local authorities to understand where they were providing additional legal advice and why, but it told us that it did not have a high response rate to the survey. It explained that while the response rate was low, responses showed that there may be several reasons for local authorities to be providing advice, including that the issue or individual’s circumstances may be outside the scope of legal aid. It also stressed that it had done a lot of work with MHCLG, particularly around the Renters’ Rights Bill, which may create more legal disputes, and how to ensure that provision of legal aid is in the right places to meet this demand. We asked MoJ whether these conversations had changed anything for local government. However, in response it only stated that it had rolled out a new pathfinder pilot in family courts which it said should help to reduce burdens on local government as a specialist worker will point families to legal advice that it now funds.37 34 HC Committee of Public Accounts, Value for money from legal aid, Thirty-Third Report of Session 2023-24, HC 481, 20 May 2024. 35 Law Society of England and Wales (MOJ0002): Public Law Project (MOJ0004) 36 HMT, Treasury Minutes, 5 September 2024 37 Qq 37-41 13
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Government response AI summary
The government agrees and states the department has written to the Committee, alongside the Treasury Minute response, setting out the results of its survey of local authorities and any further investigations planned.
Read full response →
HM Treasury
25
Conclusion
59th Report - Ministry of Justice follo…
Acknowledged
We asked LAA why it had taken so long to detect the attack and to then take systems offline.48 LAA explained that the risk of a cyberattack on its systems had been rated as extremely high on MoJ’s risk registers since 2021. It told us that MoJ had subsequently provided …
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We asked LAA why it had taken so long to detect the attack and to then take systems offline.48 LAA explained that the risk of a cyberattack on its systems had been rated as extremely high on MoJ’s risk registers since 2021. It told us that MoJ had subsequently provided over £50 million in total to help address some of the system issues and improve security, which allowed it to implement a new security monitoring service.49 It explained that it was 42 Qq 62, 65 43 Q 58 44 Law Society of England and Wales (MOJ0002); Public Law Project (MOJ0004); The Law Centres Network (MOJ0008) 45 Law Society of England and Wales (MOJ0002) 46 Q 70 47 Q 70 48 Q 71 49 Qq 71, 96 15 this new service which meant it was able to detect the breach in April 2025. On the delay to taking its systems down, LAA told us that discussions at senior levels around the trade-offs between access to justice and the risks posed by the cyberattack were ongoing between April and May 2025. However, it said that it did not discover the full extent of the attack—that a large amount of information relating to legal aid applicants may also have been accessed—until 16 May 2025, at which point it took systems offline.50
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Government response AI summary
The Chief Executive of the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) set out the initial lessons learned at the Committee evidence session in October 2025, including the need for senior leaders to ensure that cyber-vulnerabilities are fully understood and business continuity plans cover a long period.
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HM Treasury
26
Conclusion
59th Report - Ministry of Justice follo…
Acknowledged
LAA acknowledged that contingency measures it put in place to keep the legal aid system going placed additional burdens on providers, and that there are several lessons to be learned from the attack. This included, ensuring senior leaders understand risks in systems, ensuring longer term business continuity plans are in …
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LAA acknowledged that contingency measures it put in place to keep the legal aid system going placed additional burdens on providers, and that there are several lessons to be learned from the attack. This included, ensuring senior leaders understand risks in systems, ensuring longer term business continuity plans are in place and considering the impact on staff of responding to the attack, which it said had been brutal. It also stressed the importance of consistent communication and collaboration with stakeholders to work through the response.51
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Government response AI summary
The Chief Executive of the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) set out the initial lessons learned at the Committee evidence session in October 2025, including the need for senior leaders to ensure that cyber-vulnerabilities are fully understood and business continuity plans cover a long period.
Read full response →
HM Treasury