A rattled John Swinney yesterday tried to defend spending £1billion on a ‘five-star prison’ as he was accused of building a ‘luxury resort’ for rapists and murderers.
Amid angry scenes at First Minister’s Questions, Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay said the SNP government was squandering public cash on HMP Glasgow.
He told MSPs at Holyrood that the price tag, which has risen ten-fold since the original estimates, included ‘nonsense’ such as landscaped gardens, an orchard, amphitheatre steps and special boxes for birds and bats.
But Mr Swinney defended the money being spent on the replacement for the city’s infamous Barlinnie Prison and branded Mr Findlay questions as ‘reprehensible and despicable’.
During a heated FMQs, Mr 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 new Barlinnie is going to cost a billion, but the SNP seem to think it’s a bargain.
‘John Swinney is squandering more on a five-star prison than the SNP spent on Scotland’s flagship Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.
‘As a matter of urgency, John Swinney must commit to cutting these outrageous costs.’
The Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, which opened in 2015, cost £842million.
John Swinney dismissed criticism of a new prison project as ‘absolutely reprehensible and despicable’ at Holyrood
Barlinnie Prison in Glasgow has long been one of the toughest jails in the UK
The new 1,344-inmate prison, which is due to replace the Victorian 987-place Barlinnie jail in 2028, will cost £998.4million, the SNP Government revealed on Tuesday.
The cost is 10 times the original 2014 estimate, which SNP ministers attributed to extra places and rampant inflation in the construction industry since the pandemic.
During yesterday’s echanges, Mr Findlay offered Mr Swinney a bet that the bill would ‘only go even higher’ and asked if £1billion was ‘good value for Scotland’s taxpayers’.
Mr Swinney said it was ‘essential’ to replace Barlinnie and insisted the ‘full rigour of cost analysis’ had been applied to the project and ministers would ‘control the costs carefully’.
Mr Findlay said: ‘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.
‘I am not making this up – there will be wee boxes for owls and bats to live in and special bricks for the birds.
‘The SNP expects hard-working Scottish taxpayers to pay for its nonsense.
‘Surely, we need some common sense by building a prison at minimum cost to taxpayers, not maximum benefit to prisoners.’
An enraged Mr Swinney replied: ‘I think the tone of Mr Findlay’s question is absolutely reprehensible and despicable.
An artist’s impression of Barlinnie’s replacement
Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay described plans for the new jail as resembling ‘a luxury resort or a nature reserve’
‘If he wants to have a dividing line in politics on this type of stuff, then I will happily be on the other side of the argument from Russell Findlay and all of the cohorts that he is courting in his question.’
Mr Findlay said the cohort he was speaking to was ‘hard-working Scots’.
He said: ‘It is taxpayers who want every single pound to be spent on the best possible schools and hospitals, not on the best possible prisons.’
The First Minister said HMP Glasgow would cost £740,000 per place, in the middle of £610,000 to £840,000 per place range seen in England and Wales.
It would also be almost double the size of the original 700-place prison proposal.
Mr Findlay hit back: ‘The prison has doubled in size but will cost 10 times as much – that is SNP economics right there.’
Amid raucous scenes, Mr Swinney accused Mr Findlay of using ‘obnoxious rhetoric’ to shore up his party’s support against the threat of Reform UK.
‘I have balanced 10 budgets in this country and delivered value for money, and I will continue to do so,’ the FM added.
Located in Provanmill in the city’s east end, HMP Glasgow will be ‘net zero’ and ‘trauma informed’, meaning designed with inmate distress in mind.
Planning documents say it will have a variety of ‘landscape zones’ which will ‘maintain a safe and secure environment’, ‘enhance biodiversity’ and promote ‘wellbeing’.
They include an Entrance Plaza ‘defined by a strong sense of arrival’, with ‘amphitheatre seating… allowing passers-by to pause and dwell’.
There will also be an ‘ecological enhancement area’ with ‘grassland, wetland meadow and a pond’, bird and bat boxes and ‘log piles’ for wildlife to hibernate in.
A ‘health and wellbeing garden’ dedicated to ‘reflection, prayer and meditation’ will use ‘low growing sensory planting to engage the senses’ and fixed seating amidst the plants ‘to achieve a positive, calm and quiet environment’.
And a proposed horticulture area will have ‘raised beds, allotment plots, fruit trees and polytunnels’ to grow produce and give prisoners a chance to learn new skills.
Responding to the FM’s outburst, Scottish Tory deputy leader Rachael Hamilton said: ‘If that’s John Swinney’s take on being criticised for allowing £1 billion of taxpayers’ money to be squandered on a luxury prison with mod cons, he’s even more out of touch with the Scottish people than we realised.’
