A government organisation at the centre of a prisons deal with Saudi Arabia has cost the taxpayer more than £1m, a Whitehall spending watchdog has disclosed.

Just Solutions International, which won a contract to train prison staff in the kingdom, generated less than £1m income for the taxpayer and had costs of £2.1m, the National Audit Office found.



Auditors also disclosed that the body, set up by the former justice secretary Chris Grayling, worked with many other governments with poor human rights records, including China, Nigeria, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Libya.

JSI was shut down last year by the justice secretary, Michael Gove, after three years in operation, following criticisms from human rights organisations that it was training Saudi prison staff.



Campaigners raised concerns about the MoJ working so closely with a regime under scrutiny over the botched execution of a woman who died protesting her innocence and the harsh punishment meted out to a liberal blogger.

Auditors found that the costs included fees paid to Ernst & Young for the first business case of £118,000 and PricewaterhouseCoopers for the second pilot and business case of £121,000.



The loss to the taxpayer will be seen as another blow to the reputation of Grayling, who set up JSI as the trading arm of the national offender management service. It was supposed to sell its expertise in prisons and probation – including in offender management, payment by results, tagging and privatisation – around the world. There was particular criticism of the £5.9m contract with Saudi Arabia, where public beheadings, torture and amputations are carried out within its justice system.

Saudi Arabia’s justice system has faced international outcry since the activist Raif Badawi was sentenced to 10 years in jail and 1,000 lashes for advocating freedom of expression.



This month Saudi Arabia executed 47 people for terrorism, including Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a prominent Shia cleric. As well as attracting international criticism, the move has inflamed tensions between Saudi Arabia and its Sunni allies and Iran’s Shia leadership.

The NAO inquiry was prompted by Charles Falconer, the shadow justice secretary, who had written to the office saying there had been a lack of transparency on the part of the government in relation to JSI’s structures and funding. David Allen Green, a lawyer and writer, had also contacted the NAO.



Meg Hillier, chair of the Commons public accounts committee, which oversees the work of the NAO, said the losses had been sustained despite a commitment that it would be self-funding. “I am concerned by the loss of taxpayers’ money on this failed venture, and the Ministry of Justice’s ongoing work with countries with questionable human rights records,” she said.

Falconer said the NAO report has exposed a shocking waste of money and yet another example of incompetence at the Ministry of Justice.

“It is clear that this was a flawed enterprise from the start. The Tories clearly have an aversion to transparency and openness; ministers need to act immediately to put in place greater safeguards so they can be held accountable for the way taxpayers’ money is spent,” he said.