John Swinney has blamed Liz Truss for the estimated costs of building a replacement Barlinnie prison rising to almost £1 billion.
The First Minister pointed to the short-lived Tory leader as the source of the “significant inflation” which has pushed up the cost of building materials in the UK.
The SNP leader faced questions on why the cost of the new HMP Glasgow – which is not expected to open until 2028 – have ballooned in size.
An initial estimate in 2014 suggested the cost of the facility could be £100 million. It means the taxpayer could pay more for the prison than for the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow.
Speaking during at First Minister’s Questions, MSP Russell Findlay said: “Instead of building a high-security prison to lock up rapists and murderers, John Swinney thinks he is building either a luxury resort or a nature reserve.
“The Justice Secretary says it will be ‘based around small communities living together and supporting each other’. There will be an orchard of fruit trees, there will be beautiful landscape gardens, planting beds, poly tunnels, amphitheatre-like steps.
“Surely, we need some common sense by building a prison at minimum cost to taxpayers, not maximum benefit to prisoners.”
The First Minister hit back: “I think the tone of Mr Findlay’s question is absolutely reprehensible and despicable.”
He continued: “This project is different to the one that was originally discussed about a decade ago. In the original proposition, it was based on estimates of a 700-place prison. And this will in fact be a prison that will accommodate over 1,340 prisoners – it is almost double the size.
“When we have looked at the comparative costs, and a report by the National Audit Office found that cost per prison place have increased by up to 259 per cent between the initial business case and the expected costs. The price per place has risen to between £610,000 and £840,000 in England and Wales.
“The price per place at HMP Glasgow sits in the middle at the middle of this range at £740,000.”
Swinney continued: “The issues have arisen because of significant inflation in the construction costs with which we are wrestling. Why are we wrestling with these costs? We are wrestling with these costs because of the financial mismanagement of the Conservatives.
“The Liz Truss Budget, the higher interests she bequeathed on us all – and Mr Findlay was right behind the mess she created.”
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