FMJ Facilities Management magazine providing industry-specific intelligence to FM and property professionals
Melissa Dudley has been appointed to the position of Justice Sector Director at Kier, where she will support key customers including the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), Scottish Prisons Service (SPS) and Home Office on their plans to build and improve critical infrastructure across the UK.
Dudley joins Kier from the MoJ, where she has held numerous senior commercial and contract management roles, most latterly as Commercial Deputy Director on the MoJ’s 20,000 Prison Place Programme. In this role Dudley was responsible for a £9 billion project portfolio that included six new prisons, 14 houseblock expansions, a category D expansion, and several major refurbishment programmes.
Kier’s current justice sector portfolio covers a total of thirty houseblocks delivered or pending in recent years for both the MoJ and Scottish Prisons Service (SPS).
Commenting on her new appointment, Dudley said: “It‘s an exciting time to be joining Kier with so many interesting projects critical to UK infrastructure in-train and in the pipeline across the construction business. I look forward to bringing my passion for justice and infrastructure to the role.”
Rebecca Boundy, Managing Director for Clients and Markets at Kier Construction said: “I’ve admired Melissa’s career and accomplishments for a long time and couldn’t be more pleased that she’s joining us to lead our justice sector work. Her reputation speaks for itself – she has delivered landmark projects for the MoJ, including HMP Five Wells and HMP Millsike in partnership with Kier. We have seen first-hand not only her technical expertise but her ability to lead complex programmes with vision and precision.
“She joins the business at a pivotal time as we deliver major projects such as HMP Glasgow and the expansions at HMPs Elmley, Lancaster Farms, Northumberland, Bullingdon and Channings Wood, in support of the government’s plans to build 14,000 new prison places by 2031. Melissa will also lead on our work supporting the MoJ’s ongoing capital works across its retained estate.”
According to the 2026 UK Facilities Management Market Research Report by askporter, facilities management professionals want clear, verifiable evidence of work being delivered, with teams that can communicate progress in real time. This requires technology that is affordable, intuitive, and quick to adopt.
Yet the report found that:
Over three quarters of FM professionals (76 per cent) experience operational inefficiencies caused by siloed software which results in a lack of real-time visibility.
Communications challenges lead to maintenance issues, with 73 per cent of teams being forced into reactive problem-solving on a weekly basis.
A worrying level of compliance gaps, with 44 per cent of admitting that half or less of their compliance tasks are tracked and automated within their systems.
Closing this gap requires the establishment of transparent and consistent communications using affordable software that gives FM teams the ability to track, evidence and improve their services.
This webinar provides a valuable overview of the main findings of the report by askporter followed by a panel discussion by FM thought leaders on practical, strategic solutions that can help close this communications gap.
To register for the webinar taking place 29 January 2026 at 11:00am click here.
