Prison Capacity Strategy

Lord Keen of Elie Excerpts

Tuesday 17th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Keen of Elie (Con)]

My Lords, we are concerned here with the Statement made and also with the Written Statement delivered the day before by the Secretary of State for Justice. Both refer to the 10-year prison capacity strategy; indeed, it is described by the present Government as “their” 10-year prison capacity strategy.

What we have heard and what we have read might be described as good and original. Unfortunately, what is good is not original and what is original is not good. The first apparent innovation that we are referred to is the annual statement on prison capacity. In the Written Statement on 11 December, the Secretary of State for Justice referred to the

“first Annual Statement on prison capacity”,

describing it as fulfilling a “transparency commitment for 2024” and a necessary step in “our plan”.

The Oral Statement given by the Secretary of State’s junior Minister in the Commons repeated news of this innovation: that the Government were to publish an annual statement on prison capacity, which would be a “critical” step. It is all about transparency, clarity and public confidence. But let us wait: 16 October 2023 was before the election. We had a Conservative Government and a Conservative Secretary of State for Justice, the right honourable Alex Chalk. What had he to say in the other place? He said:

“To ensure public confidence, a new annual statement of prison capacity will be laid before both Houses. It will include a clear statement of current prison capacity, future demand, the range of system costs that will be incurred under different scenarios and our forward pipeline of prison build. That will bring greater transparency to the plans and will set out the progress that is being made”.—[Official Report, Commons, 16/10/23; col. 59.]


I do not believe the Minister or his officials will require the column reference as the Statement made by the then Secretary of State for Justice is, in effect, repeated verbatim in this novel and innovative Statement that we have received in the last few days.

There is a difference. The right honourable Alex Chalk referred to a new annual statement “of” prison capacity. The new Government repeatedly refer to a new annual statement “on” prison capacity. Are we to infer that the innovation lies in the change of preposition? I can discern no further distinction between the two. What we are in receipt of is the cut and paste of the Conservative Government’s policy announced more than a year ago.

Then there is a second innovation in this new prisons programme, as reflected in the policy paper. We are told of new prisons in Yorkshire, Leicestershire and Buckinghamshire. The Secretary of State for Justice referred in her Statement on 11 December to “rapid deployment cells”. In the foreword to the prison capacity strategy document itself, the now Secretary of State for Justice tells us that this document is our 10-year prison capacity strategy.

“It sets out how this Government will build the 14,000 prison places … It is a detailed plan setting out where these places will be built … As such, it is a realistic but ambitious plan for prison building—a far sight from the empty rhetoric and disappointing reality of my predecessors’ previous efforts”.


Paragraph 8 of the document, under the heading “New prisons”, says:

“We will deliver … new places through new prisons”.

It explains that these are to include new prisons in Yorkshire, Leicestershire, Buckinghamshire, and Lancashire; and there will be “rapid deployment cells”, which are defined as “modular self-contained units”.

More innovation—but let us wait a moment. The construction of the rapid deployment cells at His Majesty’s Prison Millsike was announced by the then Secretary of State for Justice, the right honourable Alex Chalk, on 12 February 2024. With respect to the new prisons programme, His Majesty’s Prison Five Wells and His Majesty’s Prison Fosse Way opened before the election.

The construction of His Majesty’s Prison Grendon in Buckinghamshire was approved by the Conservative Government before the election. The plan for a third prison in Buckinghamshire was approved in January 2024. Construction of the new prison next to His Majesty’s Prison Gartree in Leicestershire was approved at about the same time.

The so-called “innovation” of the new prison programme is yet another case of cut and paste. There is reference to “empty rhetoric”, but whose? If the Minister were to submit this paper to his tutor, it would be marked in bold red, “Wretched plagiarism”, and down-marked again for failure to acknowledge his sources. It is a third-class effort.

There is one example of innovation by the present Secretary of State for Justice and her department. We know that something like 73,000 cases are pending in the Crown Courts. We know that, on any day, 10% to 30% of Crown Courts are shut. The number of prisoners on remand is still set to increase. Only recently, the Lady Chief Justice called for an additional 6,500 judicial sitting days in order that, in the face of such increase, the Crown Court could operate at maximum capacity.

What innovation did this Government bring to bear? They agreed not to 6,500 additional sitting days but to 500. Then, I believe today, there has been a suggestion that a further 2,000 sitting days will be found. Whether they are freed up in light of the move for an increase in magistrates’ sentencing powers from six months to 12 months or otherwise is not clear. But that still leaves a further 4,000 judicial sitting dates which are not going to be utilised in the face of this backlog.

Yet, at the same time, there seems to be consideration of such innovations as judges sitting with magistrates and not with juries. Will the noble Lord please enlighten us as to why the Chief Justice’s suggestion, nay request, for 6,500 additional sitting days that are available has not been met.

I have the highest regard for the Minister and his commitment to prison and sentencing reform, but over a long and successful business career he will have been face to face with a lot of cobblers. This 10-year strategy is simply a cut and paste of existing policy projects, and we need more from this Government than empty rhetoric.

[Lord Beith (LD)]

My Lords, I agree with the noble and learned Lord about the need to address the remand prisoner situation with more sitting days, but on other parts of what he said, I hope he is wrong. If there is that much continuity between the policies of the previous Government and this Government, we are not going to get out of the difficulties that we face.

There is no doubt about the appalling state of our prison system which the Government have inherited. They took over a system which was supposed to provide 20,000 extra prison places while coping with massive overcrowding, a shortage of experienced staff and a penal philosophy which called for even longer sentences. There is a desperate shortage of the resources needed to reduce reoffending, either by programmes during custody or by supporting ex-prisoners on the difficult route to leading a better life and keeping the law.

We do not want to see this Government repeat the failures of their predecessor. Given his practical and personal experience in resettling and employing ex-offenders, we believe that the Prisons Minister understands the problems and is personally committed to changing the way we address them. But the Statement does not really inspire confidence and nor does the strategy. It rests on two assumptions, the first of which is that the increase in prison places will be achieved. I have to say that I am doubtful about that on the basis of experience, and even if achieved, it is recognised that it is not enough. That will not solve the problem. We cannot build our way out of this situation.

The other key assumption is that the sentencing review—which we welcome—will reduce the pressure for yet more places to be provided, even on the numbers the Government have given. That depends on whether there is political leadership to implement the radical ideas the commission will have to come up with if it is going to change the situation. We want to know whether that leadership is there. The public and media debate has to be taken forward. Tough talk leads to bad decisions. Excessive use of custody, which is hugely expensive, ensures that neither the prisons nor the probation system can devote the effort to the rehabilitation needed to cut crime.

It is time to be straight with the public. It is time to tell them that the Government are spending their taxes on a system which we know leads to prisoners reoffending. We know it leads to more prisoners and less rehabilitation, as well as to more reoffending, and it has got to change. When a crime is committed, victims and the public want the offender to be caught, tried, made to face the consequences of the hurt and damage they have caused and set up to lead a better life in the hope that they will not repeat their offences either towards the victims or towards anybody else.

In some cases, prison is essential for public protection; in others, there are more effective community sentences which, for many offenders, are more challenging than a spell in jail. It is not sensible to use the length of a custodial sentence, as we do these days, as the index of how seriously we take a crime. That way lies wasted money and more reoffending on release. Is the political leadership prepared to say that kind of thing? With a former DPP as the Prime Minister, it ought to be possible.

I put to the Minister a simple question: why does this country lock up more criminals for longer than most other west European countries?