Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to his letter to the hon. Member for West Suffolk, dated 10 September 2026, what the evidential basis is for the statement that there will be more people in prison than ever before by the end of this Parliament.

The Annual Statement on Prison Capacity showed that the adult prison population was projected to reach between 89,500 and 94,300 by November 2029, with a central estimate of 91,700. Even the lower end of this range is above the highest published prison population figure of 88,893, recorded on 9 September 2024.