Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what instructions he has issued to police forces about the future use of Operation Safeguard.

As our forecast published on 23 February (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/prison-population-projections-2022-to-2027) sets out, we expect the prison population to rise over the coming years. This is due to the recruitment of an additional 23,000 police officers, the impact of courts recovering from Covid-19 and long-term sentencing reforms to protect the public by locking up the most dangerous criminals for longer.

Our number one priority is protecting the public and cutting crime by taking dangerous criminals off the streets. We are committed to delivering 20,000 additional modern prison places, the biggest prison build programme in a century. This will ensure the right conditions are in place to rehabilitate prisoners, helping to cut crime and protect the public.

Operation Safeguard is an agreement with the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) to bring around 400 police cells into temporary use to hold prisoners. Operation Safeguard was previously triggered in 2006 and then in 2007–2008.

On Monday 20 February, the first Operation Safeguard places became available for use in the North-East, North-West and in the Central Police regions. As of Friday 24 February, 83 prisoners have been held in Operation Safeguard places in police stations in the North-East, North-West and in the Central Police regions and have since been moved into prison. On Monday 20 February, HMPPS gave the Police the required 14 days’ notice to activate Operation Safeguard in remaining regions (for use from Monday 6 March). As Operation Safeguard is only being used from this week, there has been no cost to the department in the past 3 months.

HMPPS has engaged with the NPCC and relevant forces frequently on Operation Safeguard, and before police cells were used to house prisoners HMPPS issued clear operational guidance to staff and partners, and remain in regular contact.