Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department is taking steps to learn from the experience of other countries in managing fluctuations in prisoner numbers.

We are not the first country to face acute pressures in prison capacity. As a matter of course, the MoJ engages with international partners at both a ministerial and official level. Recently, we had the opportunity to meet with senior officials from New York City’s Department of Corrections to understand how they are addressing their own capacity challenges. This year, we have also strengthened relationships with countries across Europe and the rest of the world to explore innovations in respective prison estates, technology and legislation. This approach will continue moving forward.

My officials are also engaging in regular discussions with international partners to share information on managing high prison capacity.

We have announced that we will legislate as part of the Criminal Justice Bill to create the powers necessary to transfer prisoners overseas for the purposes of detaining them in a rented prison in future. This decision was informed by consideration of other countries, including the experience of Norway renting prison space from the Netherlands from 2015-2018 to manage an acute rise in prison population. Belgium has also previously rented prison spaces from the Netherlands to alleviate pressure on their prison capacity.

We continue to look at every measure to best manage fluctuations in prison numbers including observing best practice in foreign countries.