Subcontractors working across ISG’s Ministry of Justice live projects have been unable to retrieve their tools from the day ISG went into administration until today (30 September).
A worker from a different company told CM that ISG subcontractors working at HMP Liverpool had been turned away when attempting to collect their tools from site.
A Prison Service spokesperson told CM that access to the site had been restricted “for security and safety reasons”.
The MoJ confirmed through further enquiries that access to tools was restricted across all sites where ISG was the main contractor for the same reasons.
The Prison Service spokesperson said: “We have arranged for contractors to collect their tools from Monday 30 September. We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.”
Eight companies of the ISG group, owned by US-based investment firm Cathexis, entered administration on 20 September. Around 2,200 staff were made redundant and all projects stopped with immediate effect.
A third of ISG’s pipeline consisted of public sector contracts. According to data from construction analyst Barbour ABI, ISG had 69 ongoing projects for central government worth £1.8bn. Among these were 22 schemes, including frameworks, that were part of the MoJ’s programme to improve prison capacity.
ISG was carrying out a major refurbishment of one of HMP Liverpool’s wings when it filed for administration.
The MoJ said contractors can contact [email protected] if they are having trouble retrieving the tools.
