The claim
“Building a closed detention bed costs about £500,000 according to official prison programme figures, and the same cost standard applies to immigration removal centres.”
Coverage of the cost of building immigration detention places.
Our verdict
Mostly True
National Audit Office figures imply roughly £470,000 to £505,000 per new prison place; we could not confirm that the same standard is used for removal centres.
What we found
The NAO put the prison expansion programme at £9.4bn to £10.1bn for 20,000 places, roughly £500,000 a place. We found no official statement applying that figure to immigration removal centres, which are run by the Home Office.
The evidence
- Supports the claim
The NAO estimated the prison expansion portfolio at £9.4bn to £10.1bn for the 20,000-place programme. [1]
What we could not confirm
- Whether the same cost standard is applied to immigration removal centres.
How we checked
We checked the claim against National Audit Office. We reviewed 1 relevant source.
Sources
- [1]National Audit Office · Increasing the capacity of the prison estate to meet demand (summary)
Have evidence we missed?
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