The Prince of Wales receives millions in taxpayer cash from an empty prison which has now become infested with rats and other vermin. HMP Dartmoor is leased to the Ministry of Justice for £1.5 million by the Duchy of Cornwall every year. The estate gives Prince William a private income and it is his best taxpayer-funded source of income, according to a joint investigation by The Sunday Times and Channel 4 Dispatches.
But the prison is closed and has been since July last year. It shut following high levels of toxic gas being found in prisoner accommodation and inmates had to be moved to other jails. Among the inmates being moved were sex offenders inside for long stretches.
The agreement in the lease means that the estate is not responsible for the prison upkeep. A "dilapidations clause” also means the taxpayer must fork out £68 million to repair the building even though it was built with taxpayer cash. There has been further wear on the building since it shut last year, along with bird infestations and bats, insects and birds taking root and taking advantage of the windows that were opened to help with ventilation.
The prison may never reopen, according to a report by an independent monitoring board. The radioactive gas radon, linked to lung cancer, had been found at the jail when the 25-year lease was signed in 2022. HMP Dartmoor’s future will be decided in the summer, when the government looks at its spending plans, a prison spokesperson told the BBC.
The cost of the lease has more than doubled since the 1980s, but a Tory source told the Times that the then-government felt it had to sign the lease or risk losing prison spaces which are extremely limited. Both the MoJ and the Ducky took legal advice when the deal was put together, the estate said.
