Recommendation 18

We asked MoJ if it has assessed the costs of needing to deliver prison places so urgently, such as paying contractors more to take on a higher level of risk.62 MoJ said it had not and indicated this could be difficult to disaggregate. It conceded that needing to do things quickly will likely cost more, but it also pointed to other factors which have increased costs such as inflation, which it said had meant delays have been more costly as prices increased.63 HMPPS explained that in some cases it paid to accelerate the delivery of projects, for example one of its new houseblocks, Rye Hill, so that it could be delivered several months earlier.64 It has also paid £70 million to date to house prisoners in police cells under Operation Safeguard to provide additional one–night contingency in the system.65