Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the (a) number of prison places added, (b) number of prison places removed and (c) net change in the number of prison places was in each year from the earliest year for which data are available.

As previously set out in an ad-hoc release in October 2024, the previous Government only managed to increase prison capacity by c.500 places between May 2010 and April 2024.

As we have also previously published, the previous Labour Government added nearly 28,000 places to the prison estate, however available records do not provide a breakdown for these figures.

The answers to both questions, dating back to 2010, have been provided as an Excel document alongside this response. Please note that HMPPS does not collate data in the specific categories requested in PQ 36626 so these have been substituted for the equivalent categories in which the data is held. The ‘other’ category in the table includes all other changes such as places temporarily out of use for maintenance.

Lastly, due to the complexities around prison crowding data, we are unable to provide a breakdown alongside the other information. However, data on prison crowding is published annually and a comprehensive overview can be viewed at HMPPS Annual Digest, April 2023 to March 2024 - GOV.UK.