Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to (a) tackle overcrowding in prisons and (b) adopt alternative methods to incarceration for low level offenders.

Overcrowding in prisons

In November 2020, this Government announced that it would commit over £4 billion capital funding to make significant progress in delivering 18,000 additional prison places across England and Wales by the mid-2020s. This includes creating four new prisons over the next six years and expanding another four prisons over the next three years. Construction is well underway on HMP Five Wells, the new prison at Wellingborough in Northamptonshire, and works have started at Glen Parva, Leicestershire. These additional prison places will have a positive impact on lowering the proportion of crowding within the prison estate by providing accommodation that is safe, decent and uncrowded.

The total prison population has also reduced by over 6,000 since the start of the pandemic and, as a result, the total number of prisoners currently held in crowded conditions has reduced. We closely monitor prison population forecasts and the extent to which crowding has reduced in 20/21 will be reflected in the publication of the HMPPS Annual Digest.

Alternative Methods to Custody

In September 2020 this Government published the Sentencing White Paper, which set out an agenda of reform for punishing and rehabilitating low level offenders, including where those offenders can be effectively managed in the community rather than in prison.

Where these reforms require legislation, relevant measures are contained within the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill which is currently before Parliament. Reforms include piloting a problem-solving court approach for certain community and suspended sentence orders, extending the use of electronic monitoring, and increasing the usage and availability of Community Sentence Treatment Requirements.