Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many inmates have been transferred from HMP Wandsworth due to re-categorisation since 7 September 2023.

HMP Wandsworth’s main function is to hold unsentenced prisoners while their cases progress through the courts. Once prisoners are sentenced, they are categorised and transferred to a prison with an appropriate security category. Prisoner movement records indicate there have been a total of 568 transfers out of Wandsworth since 7 September 2023. The number of these which were solely due to re-categorisation is not centrally collated.

There are complex and wide-ranging issues involved in transferring and locating prisoners, and allocation decisions must reflect both the specific needs and circumstances of the prisoner, including their security assessment, as well as the operating environment and range of services at the receiving prison. How these considerations apply in individual cases is not recorded in centrally collated data.