Prison Accommodation

(asked on 10th November 2023) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to increase prison capacity.


Answered by
Edward Argar Portrait
Edward Argar
Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
This question was answered on 20th November 2023

We are investing £4 billion in the biggest prison building programme since the Victorian era, including 6 new prisons – creating 20,000 new prison places and have already delivered c 5,600 of these, with 10,000 expected by the end of 2025. Over the last year, we have also brought on an additional 2,500 places through measures such as crowding and delaying refurbishment where it is appropriate to do so.

On 16 October, the Lord Chancellor announced longer-term measures to reform the way we deliver justice and to address prison capacity. These measures put protecting the public at their heart – locking away the worst offenders for longer whilst having a renewed focus on rehabilitation for lower risk offenders, thereby reducing crime further. The measures announced include: the extension of the Early Removal Scheme for Foreign National Offenders; introducing a presumption against short sentences under 12 months (which have a high rate of reoffending) in favour of suspended sentences (which have lower reoffending rates); reviewing the sentencing discount given for early guilty pleas; the transfer of adult prisoners to rented prison space overseas; curtailing the licence period for IPP sentences; and extending the use of Home Detention Curfew (HDC).

In addition, a new annual statement of prison capacity will be laid before both Houses. This will include a clear statement of current prison capacity and future demand. The Lord Chancellor also announced up to £400m funding for more prison places (enough to buy 800 new Rapid Deployment Cells) and £30m of funding has been set aside to allow the prison service to identify and purchase land in 2024 for new prisons.

Reticulating Splines