14 Apr 2005

Interserve, the infrastructure and facilities management group, has been named by Her Majesty’s Prison Service (HMPS) as a preferred constructor in a seven-year framework agreement covering the refurbishment of prisons in England and Wales. Works commissioned through the agreement will include alterations, extensions and maintenance.

HMPS anticipates spending £600 million in the first four of the seven years across its six regions in England and Wales. Interserve will operate in four of these regions – north east, north-west, east/central and west – and estimates that it will undertake approximately one-sixth of the work awarded in the framework.

Project sizes are likely to range from £50,000 to £10 million.  Interserve is currently involved in the pre-construction stage in two projects that are typical of the activities that will be covered by the strategic alliance. One is the re-roofing of a fully occupied prison and the second involves complex structural alterations to a Victorian listed building in order to construct new shower rooms. In both cases Interserve’s value engineering input is already making appreciable impact.

John Vyse, Interserve Plc director, said, “Interserve’s appointment in this strategic alliance agreement is excellent news and complements a similar position in HMPS’s 10-year, new-build strategic alliance awarded in June 2004. HMPS is a very professional client with a consistent, effective approach to procurement. This announcement builds on our long and successful working relationship which includes the creation of four new custodial establishments delivered through PFI: the Harmondsworth Immigration Detention Centre and three new prisons in Manchester, Peterborough and Ashford, Middlesex.”

In March Interserve announced a £400 million award from the MoD covering its South East Prime contract and a £100 million schools PFI contract for the borough of Telford and Wrekin.