Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Dan Carden and Andrew Ranger

Tuesday 10th September 2024 Commons Chamber

[Dan Carden (Liverpool Walton) (Lab)]

1. What steps her Department is taking to increase prison capacity.

[Andrew Ranger (Wrexham) (Lab)]

16. What steps her Department is taking to increase prison capacity.

[The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice (Shabana Mahmood)]

Today is the day that those on the Opposition Benches always knew was coming. The legacy of the previous Government was a prison system on the brink of collapse, which left us with no choice. Today, around 1,700 offenders have had to be released a few weeks or months early by changing their automatic release point from 50% to 40% of their sentence. Had we not done so, we faced courts unable to hold trials, police unable to make arrests and a total breakdown of law and order. This is not the long-term solution—there is more that we must do—but it was the necessary first step that we had to take following the disgraceful dereliction of duty of the previous Government.