Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average cost was of a prison place in each of the last five years.
An average cost per prisoner, costs per prison place and overall prison unit costs for each private and public sector prison in England and Wales are routinely published by His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service. This information is produced on an annual basis and is published after the end of each financial year.
Information on prison expenditure can be accessed in the Prison and Probation Performance Statistics pages for each financial year on the www.gov.uk website that can be accessed on this link: Prison and Probation Performance Statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
The average cost per prisoner place for the last five years is provided in the table below:
Financial Year | Average Cost Per Prisoner |
2017/18 | £37,543 |
2018/19 | £41,136 |
2019/20 | £42,670 |
2020/21 | £48,409 |
2021/22 | £47,434 |
The 2022/23 figures have not yet been published.