Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 10
59th Report - Ministry of Justice follow-up: Autumn 2025
Published 7 Jan 2026
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Ministry of Justice follow-up: Autumn 2025 All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
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.
From: Public Accounts Committee, 59th Report - Ministry of Justice follow-up: Autumn 2025 (HC 1240), 7 January 2026
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 1 April 2026 (deadline 7 March 2026).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government states that it "agrees with the Committee's recommendation" on each of the recommendations in the response, reporting some as implemented and giving target dates for others.
- On Dartmoor, HMPPS has reviewed its handling of the lease negotiations and identified areas of learning. MoJ and HMPPS will write to the Committee "once the proposed approach to remediating Dartmoor has been decided", with a target date of June 2026.
- On access to legal aid for the digitally excluded, an Ipsos civil demand feasibility study will report by the end of March 2026. The department will report back to the Committee on progress in October 2026.
- On market sustainability, the department will "explore options to routinely monitor the profitability of legal aid firms" and update the Committee in October 2026. Any future policy decisions will be "in the context of the department's spending review settlement".
- On the cyberattack, MoJ and LAA say lessons have already been shared across government. MoJ states that it "has allocated funding to the transformation of LAA systems over the 2026-2029 period".