Lord Beecham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2016-03-07.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Faulks on 27 October 2015 (HL2390), what steps they have taken to satisfy themselves as to the appropriateness of the award of the contract for the management of Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre to MTCNovo in the light of the failure of the Youth Justice Board, in its response to a letter from Article 39, the Howard League for Penal Reform, and INQUEST, to address issues concerning that company’s limited experience of dealing with the provision of custodial care for young offenders, and legal cases in the USA that raise questions about its suitability.

Lord Faulks

MTCnovo is a joint venture between Management Training Corporation (MTC) and Novo Community Ltd, owned by Amey. The capability of MTC and Amey, were robustly assessed at the pre-qualification stage of the competition.

There are two current legal cases brought against the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDCO) in relation to two correctional facilities in the USA where MTC is now the operator. Both these cases are brought against the commissioning authority MDOC and relate to conditions that existed when the facilities were operated by a different provider.