A “catastrophic” decision by the Ministry of Justice to sign a 10-year lease on a prison where high levels of a poisonous gas had been detected is expected to cost the UK taxpayer more than £100m, parliament’s spending watchdog has concluded.
The public accounts committee said the 2022 deal to rent HMP Dartmoor from the Duchy of Cornwall was signed “in a blind panic” by senior civil servants looking to guarantee prison places.
So the reason they stopped using it is the radon gas (not unusual in granite buildings built on granite). But still they leased it:
“Under the contract terms, the department cannot terminate the lease until at least December 2033. Overall, HMPPS is currently paying around £4m per year for an unusable prison. This includes rent, business rates and security costs.
“Additionally government must pay additional costs – around £68m – on fabric improvements to the Dartmoor site over the period of the lease,” the report said.
They’re renting it off the Duchy of Cornwall. And given those numbers I’d say the rent is pretty much nothing. It’s the fully repairable nature of the lease which is costing the money. But, you know, there we are.
So, given this performance, how likely are we to believe those who tell us that really, government should be doing the investing in hte economy? With ever yet more of our money untimely ripped etc?
Now there’s an incentive to abandon the LNT model of the harm done by low dose rates of radiation. Not that the Civil Service is capable of evidence-based action.
Incentive for who?
Not the ones actually paying for it, that’s the trouble.
Are the gas levels above a legal limit? If yes, then the contract can be cancelled and any paid retrieved from the Duchy of Cornwall.
More to the point, if the buildings can’t be used, then why would spend 68 million “improving the fabric”?
The article raises more questions than answers
The simple shopper will have signed a comedy contract (again).
Disassemble it, wrap it in brown paper, and send it to the south of France.
Do they still have spare space near the Chateau d’if? 🙂
So they are worried about prisoners getting lung cancer from alpha particles, but don’t care about all the other poor sods who live in Princetown? Typical bloody government. Any true caring Government would immediately evacuate Devon, Cornwall and Aberdeen!
If Radon in granite buildings is so feckin dangerous, presumably life expectancy in Cornwall and Aberdeenshire for example is much reduced.
Checks notes – oh – “In 2022–2024, Aberdeenshire had a male life expectancy of 79.5 years and a female life expectancy of 82.9 years, ranking it as the fourth highest in Scotland.
This places Aberdeenshire among the top regions in the UK for life expectancy, with its figures exceeding those of England, Northern Ireland, and Wales.”
Seems the Brits have yet to hear of this thing called “ventilation” ….
Too fucking cold here for that. Just like Clogland. Oh…
Ah, but in Clogland we have this thing called “heating”.
Even something as decadent as “central heating” , part of which warms the cold fresh air sucked in to ventialte large buildings.
Never to anyone’s satisfaction, but then again… It’s a Prison… You’re not *supposed* to have any say in things if you’re staying there at the taxpayers’ expense…
We’re not allowed heating any more, G. We can only have tepid-ing.
If radon gas is such a problem, how is Aberdeen still inhabitable?
Ventilation is “built into” most places there? So no buildup of Radon gas, *unless* you spend a ton of dosh to keep the wind out?
Is that until watermelon loony man from the coooncil building standards start encouraging overinsulation and another reason they hate woodburning stoves for that constant flow of air up the chimney?
By that definition the Diego Garcia deal will cost the UK a catastrophe for each of the next 99 years.
There would be a certain symmetry in using a prison built for the French to house illegal immigrants from France.
Radon is radioactive isn’t it? Not ‘poisonous’.