“This is a very difficult day. The staff at Bullwood Hall have given good service for many years and, like any other Member of Parliament, I do not like to see job losses in my constituency, so I realise this is also difficult news for the community of Hockley as well.
I understand that the prison is due to close at the end of March, along with Canterbury Prison, which provides a similar role to Bullwood Hall, in holding foreign national prisoners securely, before they are deported from this country. This function is now being consolidated more cost effectively at one national centre in Kent, and the existing prisoners will be transferred there in the next few weeks.
Unfortunately, Bullwood is a relatively small prison and is also quite old, compared to some other parts of the prison estate and the site has had a number of infrastructure issues down the years, which I think will have impacted on this decision.
However, I am now due to meet a delegation of the Prison Officers’ Association at one of my regular constituency surgeries this Saturday morning, where we will have an opportunity to talk through the employment implications in detail. My initial understanding is that some prison officers may be given an opportunity to transfer to other jails, or to take a voluntary redundancy package. However, I have now also called for an urgent meeting with the Prisons Minister, Jeremy Wright MP, to seek more detail about what exactly is proposed and what implications this has for the staff – and I hope to be able to secure this meeting next week.
This closure is being offset by the opening of new prisons elsewhere in the country, which should provide cheaper prison places and thus save money for the tax payer but I am very conscious that this is still difficult news for those at Bullwood, who I will now try to help as best I can.”