Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking, if any, to combat overcrowding in prisons.

In prisons where there is overcrowding, a rigorous cell certification process ensures that the use of cells is subject to a formal assessment of safety and decency.

On 16 October 2023, the Lord Chancellor announced additional, longer-term measures to reform the justice system and continue to address the prison capacity challenges. The measures announced include: extending the Early Removal Scheme, introducing a presumption to suspend sentences of 12 months or less, curtailing the license period for IPP sentences and extending the use of Home Detention Curfew.

To meet pressing demand, we are building c.20,000 modern, rehabilitative prison places – the biggest prison build programme since the Victorian era. We have already delivered c.5,900 of these, including through new prisons HMP Five Wells and HMP Fosse Way, and we have been rolling out 1,000 Rapid Deployment Cells across 18 prisons. By the end of 2025, we will have delivered over 10,000 in total.

The Government will continue to carefully monitor demand for prison places so that we can make sure we have the right approach in place to maintain the capacity required for a safe and effective criminal justice system.