- HMP Dartmoor, an ageing Victorian prison, was found to have dangerous levels of radon gas, a toxic radioactive substance linked to lung cancer, leading to the evacuation of all prisoners and staff by August 2024.
- Officials were reportedly aware of high radon levels for years, with measurements from 2020 showing unacceptable levels, yet the government signed a £100m 25-year lease in 2022, committing taxpayers to £4m annually for the now-unusable site.
- Around 750 former inmates and staff, including one who was exposed to five times the annual safe limit, are pursuing a class action lawsuit against the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), seeking compensation for health risks and anxiety, with some families of deceased individuals also approaching lawyers.
- The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has launched a criminal investigation into how prison leaders handled the radon scare, while the MoJ is now conducting 42 investigations across the wider prison and probation estate, including 15 other prisons.
- The situation has been labelled a 'catastrophic failure' by the government's public spending watchdog, with civil servants accused of 'blind panic' in their scramble for prison space, resulting in significant financial waste on the unusable Dartmoor site.
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