Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of capacity made available through Operation Safeguard was used between its inception and July 2024.

Operation Safeguard is an important contingency measure used to ensure that the current demand on prison places does not cause undue disruption to Criminal Justice System partners. The first places were activated by the previous Government in February 2023.

Between 20 February 2023 – 4 July 2024, 86,561 Operation Safeguard police cells were made available overnight.