Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of renting prison places overseas to help manage fluctuations in prisoner numbers.

Renting prison spaces overseas has the potential to augment existing prison capacity and provide us with the prison spaces we need to manage our prison population, continue cracking down on crime, and protect the British public from the worst offenders. We are introducing powers that will allow the Government to deliver prison rental agreements with other countries in the Criminal Justice Bill. In doing so, we are following in the footsteps of countries like Norway and Belgium.

This is alongside ongoing work to build 20,000 modern rehabilitative prison spaces - the biggest prison building programme since the Victorian Era – and our intention to invest a further £400m in building even more.