Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners were occupying the 172 cells referred to in Action Plan: HMP Liverpool, published on 19 January 2018, as being in an unacceptable condition prior to those cells being closed.

The action plan for HMP Liverpool refers to 172 places [for prisoners] taken out of use at the prison. As these places were taken offline over a period of time and in consultation with the Governor at HMP Liverpool the capacity of the prison has been reduced since the Inspection.

These changes were managed as part of business as usual activity in the prison over a short period of time, this was possible due to the nature of HMP Liverpool’s role as a local prison with their high level of turnover of prisoners. There has been no increase in two or more prisoners sharing cells at the prison since the inspection, either in terms of number of individuals or in terms of percentage of the prison’s total population.