Straw: prison ship go ahead

First Inmates To Board Prison Ship

Plans to use the prison ship Weare, moored at Portland, have been marked by controversy since it was ordered by the last Government to help take pressure off Britain's rising prison population.

But at Commons question time Mr Straw said pressure on the prisons made it "essential" to use the ship. He told MPs: "This prison ship is not an ideal solution to the rising prison population. But it's one of the many situations far from ideal which we inherited on coming into office."

The Home Secretary said he had visited the ship on May 16 and health and safety concerns relating to its occupation had now been resolved. "The Health and Safety Executive, the Home Office fire advisor, the Dorset Fire Service, the port authorities and the Prison Officers Association have all agreed that it is now safe to occupy a part of the accommodation before the completion of the refurbishment work elsewhere in the prison," said Mr Straw.

"The prison population pressure makes it essential to take into use the top landing at the Weare. I have therefore decided that up to 50 category D sentence prisoners will occupy the Weare from June 11."

The 18-year-old vessel is a flat-top barge with four storeys of rooms on top. Formerly known as the Resolution, in the early 1980s it housed troops and workers building a garrison and extending the airport in the Falklands after the end of hostilities. New York's Department of Correction bought it from Bibby Freighters of Liverpool, together with sister ship the Venture in 1987. The ship was then moored on the city's Hudson River, where it was used as a drug rehabilitation centre.

But it was abandoned five years ago as it was apparently proving too expensive and impractical. It lay rusting on the East River destined for the scrap yard until the Prison Service offered £4 m to have it renovated and shipped to Britain.