Serco secures £500m contract to operate HMP Dovegate

(Sharecast News) - Serco said on Monday that it has been awarded a 12-year contract worth around £500m to manage HMP Dovegate in Staffordshire. The contract has options for three additional one-year extensions.

Serco said it has operated HMP Dovegate "successfully" since 2001. The new contract will include service enhancements, such as new delivery models for education, creating new job opportunities in addition to the current workforce of over 500.

HMP Dovegate is a category B adult male facility near Uttoxeter that holds 1,160 convicted prisoners and those on remand. It is a training prison with a unique Therapeutic Community for people with emotional or behavioural issues.

Chief executive Anthony Kirby said: "We are delighted to have been chosen by the Ministry of Justice to continue to operate HMP Dovegate. We have managed the prison since 2001 and we are very proud of our track record there and our team that performs a challenging and difficult role with great professionalism and humanity.

"I am also pleased that the new contract will see more colleagues employed at the prison, which will create job opportunities locally.

"Serco has extensive experience of running prisons, both in the UK and internationally. HMP Dovegate is a well-run prison with highly respected Therapeutic Community provision and a range of offending behaviour programmes. We believe that our approach and ethos will bring about continued positive change to the prisoners who are there, helping to protect wider society."