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PRIVACY
Economic Development

Call for outsourcing review after disorder at Oakwood Prison

The 1,600-cell prison near Wolverhampton was hit by nine hours of ‘rioting’ on Sunday with ministers and company G4S accused of covering up the extent of the problems

Inside Oakwood Prison

A business expert has called for a major review of outsourcing after privately run HMP Oakwood was hit by major disorder this week.

The 1,600-cell prison near Wolverhampton was hit by nine hours of ‘rioting’ on Sunday with ministers and company G4S accused of covering up the extent of the problems.

The category C institution, which is the biggest prison in the country, was also the scene of a number of rooftop protests last year and was slammed by inspectors during a surprise visit.

The lack of information on the true scale of this week’s trouble has led critics to claim the privately run prison has serious underlying problems.

G4S said about 15 to 20 prisoners threatened officers and caused damage to cells and prison property. But other reports suggested that up to 50 prisoners were involved. No prison staff were injured, although one prisoner has been treated for minor injuries.

A G4S spokesman said: “The incident was brought under control without injury to any prison officers, although one prisoner has been treated for minor injuries.”

In the wake of the incident David Bailey, Professor of industrial strategy at Aston University and a Birmingham Post columnist said there needed to be a review of outsourced public contracts. He said: “A cross-government review of major out-sourcing contracts was recently completed in the wake of the ‘tagging’ fiasco involving inappropriate claims by, and payments to, G4S and Serco on the Ministry of Justice tagging contracts.

“It found significant weaknesses in client and contract management across government.