T4. Mr Bradley asked the Minister of Justice, notwithstanding the good news that the funding is available for the necessary upgrade at His Majesty's Prison Magilligan, how reductions in the budget will impact on the work due to take place at the correctional facility. (AQT 394/22-27)

As the Member knows, we remain absolutely committed to a replacement facility being built at Magilligan. Initially, the plan was for the residential accommodation and the kitchen and dining accommodation to move forward as a single project. Due to the restrictions on resources in the Department, particularly in the capital budget, and the urgency of the work required on the kitchen and dining facilities, we have decided instead to split those into two separate business cases. We will advance the kitchen and dining facilities first, and we will submit a business case at a later stage to advance the accommodation element. We believe that the kitchen is the bit of the facility that is at most risk, given its age and the need for an upgrade.

Thank you very much for your answer, Minister. I raised this question some time ago — almost six years ago — with a previous Justice Minister, yet here we are with the same question arising. Has a time frame been set for work to commence on the prison?

Again, I reassure the Member that work has commenced in terms of the design process, the business case and all of the preliminaries that need to be done. However, we cannot start to cut the sod on those two major pieces of the jigsaw until we know that we have the resources to do so. I know that the Member visits the prison to check on progress, so he will know that there has been other significant development around Magilligan. For example, there have been improvements to power lines, to the building exterior, to the house of worship and to other spaces in the prison that are significant. We will continue to make those adaptations to the system in the meantime.

Ultimately, however, those major projects are entirely reliant on the availability of capital investment, for which I am competing with schools, hospitals and the rest of the public sector. Often, people do not realise just how important it is that we rebuild our prison system and provide a safe and dignified environment not only for the people who live there but for those who work there.