diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 188ec44236b5f1a7eea2377a605ef9ba2b9ff839..aeafdbd80428e50b55462b5d048aa1bdaa563071 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -192,7 +192,6 @@ test-framework-tango-itango:
   tags:
   - shell
   script:
-  - apt install python3-distutils
   - mkdir .public
   - make DOCKER_REGISTRY_USER=$DOCKER_REGISTRY_USERNAME DOCKER_REGISTRY_HOST=$DOCKER_REGISTRY_HOST -C docker/tango/tango-itango build 
   - make DOCKER_REGISTRY_USER=$DOCKER_REGISTRY_USERNAME DOCKER_REGISTRY_HOST=$DOCKER_REGISTRY_HOST -C docker/tango/tango-itango test | tee .public/result.txt
diff --git a/docker/tango/ska-python-buildenv/Dockerfile b/docker/tango/ska-python-buildenv/Dockerfile
index ad70dd4c34e09a37d101d8122f577ed4c0f956bd..50c324023e56faf4887c810644049a772b81f6e5 100644
--- a/docker/tango/ska-python-buildenv/Dockerfile
+++ b/docker/tango/ska-python-buildenv/Dockerfile
@@ -28,7 +28,8 @@ RUN DOCKERHOST=`awk '/^[a-z]+[0-9]+\t00000000/ { printf("%d.%d.%d.%d", "0x" subs
 RUN buildDeps='build-essential \
                libboost-python-dev \
                pkg-config \
-               virtualenv' \
+               virtualenv \
+               python3-distutils' \
     && DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get update \
     && apt-get -y install --no-install-recommends $buildDeps
 
diff --git a/docker/tango/ska-python-runtime/Dockerfile b/docker/tango/ska-python-runtime/Dockerfile
index 7aff38d195d38d9dfa8390367f7a01ed61419a20..c1aad66397c24274029d23d61dc2039329842279 100644
--- a/docker/tango/ska-python-runtime/Dockerfile
+++ b/docker/tango/ska-python-runtime/Dockerfile
@@ -23,7 +23,8 @@ USER root
 #
 RUN runtimeDeps='libboost-python1.67.0 \
                  make \
-                 python3' \
+                 python3 \
+                 python3-distutils' \
     && DOCKERHOST=`awk '/^[a-z]+[0-9]+\t00000000/ { printf("%d.%d.%d.%d", "0x" substr($3, 7, 2), "0x" substr($3, 5, 2), "0x" substr($3, 3, 2), "0x" substr($3, 1, 2)) }' < /proc/net/route` \
     && /usr/local/bin/wait-for-it.sh --host=$DOCKERHOST --port=3142 --timeout=3 --strict --quiet -- echo "Acquire::http::Proxy \"http://$DOCKERHOST:3142\";" > /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/30proxy \
     && echo "Proxy detected on docker host - using for this build" || echo "No proxy detected on docker host" \