Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison places were out of use for maintenance-related reasons on 5th July 2024.

As of 5 July 2024, 1891 places were out of use for maintenance-related reasons.

This Government inherited a prison capacity crisis after prison places increased by just 500 places in 14 years. We are pulling every lever possible to fix that crisis and are building 14,000 new places with 3,300 already delivered.

Refurbishment and fire safety improvements are essential as without them fewer cells would be available to lock up dangerous criminals and we are working at pace to bring every available prison place online.