Lord Falconer, Labour’s Shadow Justice Secretary, responding to the NAO’s investigation into Just Solutions International, which reveals that the project’s costs were over £2million and that it made a loss of £1.1million, said:

“This is a shocking waste of money and yet another example of incompetence at the Ministry of Justice.

“Labour called on the National Audit Office to undertake an investigation into JSi and we are grateful to them for doing so in such a speedy and thorough manner. But it is completely unacceptable that Parliament and the public should have to rely on such an investigation to find out about these projects at all.

“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.”