PRESS ASSOCIATION -- Two prisons will be closed and nine further jails put out to competition in the autumn, Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke has said.
Nine prisons, including eight currently run by the public sector, will be put out for competition "to balance the need to increase efficiency" and fulfil the Government's plans for a "rehabilitation revolution", the Ministry of Justice said.
Two others - Latchmere House prison, in west London, and Brockhill prison, in the West Midlands - will shut in September with the loss of 377 prison places.
Mr Clarke said: "The public have a right to expect continuing improvement in the quality and efficiency of public services, without compromising public safety.
"The competition strategy and adjustments to the prison estate will help ensure that this is the case."
Four prisons in Yorkshire - Lindholme, Moorland, Hatfield and The Wolds - two in Northumberland - Acklington and Castington, Onley in Northamptonshire and Coldingley in Surrey will all be put out for competition.
They were selected based on "the potential for efficiency improvements, service reform and innovation, not on the basis of poor performance", the MoJ said.
Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, called for close scrutiny of the decision to put the management of nine prisons out to tender.
"A practical concern is that a tendering exercise on this scale, together with massive budgetary cuts, will deflect existing services from the essential day job of managing prisons and prisoners and working to reduce reoffending," she said.
The UK had "the most privatised prison system in Europe" with nearly 10,000 prisoners, or 11.6% of its prisoner population, held in private prisons by last year, Ms Lyon added.