A Doncaster prison has been fined more than £32,000 for failing to meet its performance targets.

HMP Doncaster, which is run by private company Serco, was hit with a £32,346 fine – part of £4.2 million in financial penalties received by private jails across the UK last year for not hitting Prison Service performance targets.

The figures were revealed by the Ministry of Justice in response to a Freedom of Information request submitted by ex-prisoner and doctoral student James Stoddart.

They showed that 13 private prisons paid a total of £6.1 million in performance penalties in 2024/25.

HMP Doncaster was fined £32,000 for failing to meet performance targets.

placeholder image — HMP Doncaster was fined £32,000 for failing to meet performance targets.

Under the contracts between the MoJ and the prisons’ private operators, prisons are handed ‘performance points’ for failings – and the more points they accrue, the bigger the penalty they must pay.

Five Wells faced the biggest penalty (£2.3 million), followed by Parc (£1.9 million). Next on the list was Serco-run Dovegate (£329,000), followed by Sodexo-run Peterborough men’s prison (£298,000).