Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the long-term adequacy of using early release measures to manage prison capacity.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
This Government inherited prisons days from collapse. We had no choice but to take decisive action to stop our prisons overflowing and keep the public safe.
Without the changes this Government made, courts would have had to halt trials and the police cancel arrests, undermining public safety and leading to a disastrous impact on public confidence in the criminal justice system.
We regularly publish data on release from prison, including on forms of early release – for example we publish SDS40 data alongside the quarterly Offender Management statistics: Standard Determinate Sentence (SDS40) release data - GOV.UK.
Whilst measures like the SDS40 change provided the intended medium-term relief to the system, this was only ever a temporary change as a bridge to a more sustainable solution. That is why the Sentencing Act has now been passed, to ensure we never run out of prison space again and to deliver a more sustainable solution to the prison capacity crisis.
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many Crown Court Judges were assigned to Shrewsbury Crown Court on 1 March in each of the last 5 years including 2026.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
This question has been interpreted to mean the total number of salaried Crown Court Judges assigned to Shrewsbury Crown Court on 1 March and not the number that actually sat on 1 March each year. 1 March 2025 and 1 March 2026 were on a Saturday and Sunday respectively.
The number of salaried Crown Court Judges assigned to Shrewsbury Crown Court on 1 March for each of the past 5 years are as follows:
1 March 2022: In Post: 3 – Full Time Equivalent: 1.9
1 March 2023: In Post: 3 – Full Time Equivalent: 2.1
1 March 2024: In Post: 3 – Full Time Equivalent: 2.2
1 March 2025: In Post: 4 – Full Time Equivalent: 3.2
1 March 2026: In Post: 3 – Full Time Equivalent: 3
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison places have been closed due to reasons concerning (a) health and safety, (b) security, (c) resources and (d) physical conditions in each year since 2010, broken down by location.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The information requested has been provided in the table below. Please note that, since 2010, 23 prisons (7519 places) have been permanently closed. The site-specific reasons for closure vary, but in the main these prisons were assessed as old and uneconomic and the decision to close was based on the suitability, sustainability and the cost of running and maintaining these prisons. For the purposes of the breakdown in the table below, these full prison closures have been identified as “physical conditions”
Some of the places included on the list below as closed due to physical conditions have either been, or are due to be, returned following refurbishment. This includes places removed at Liverpool, Birmingham, Haverigg ,Feltham and Swinfen Hall.
Year | Prison | (a) health & safety | (b) security | (c) resources | (d) physical conditions | Total |
2011 | Ashwell* |
|
|
| -214 | -214 |
| Brockhill (Hewell)* |
|
|
| -170 | -170 |
| Lancaster Castle* |
|
|
| -243 | -243 |
| Latchmere House* |
|
|
| -207 | -207 |
2011 Total |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | -834 | -834 |
2012 | Wellingborough* |
|
|
| -588 | -588 |
2012 Total |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | -588 | -588 |
2013 | Blundeston* |
|
|
| -526 | -526 |
| Bullwood Hall* |
|
|
| -228 | -228 |
| Camp Hill (IoW)* |
|
|
| -595 | -595 |
| Canterbury* |
|
|
| -314 | -314 |
| Dorchester* |
|
|
| -291 | -291 |
| Gloucester* |
|
|
| -321 | -321 |
| Kingston* |
|
|
| -205 | -205 |
| Northallerton* |
|
|
| -252 | -252 |
| Reading* |
|
|
| -320 | -320 |
| Shepton Mallet* |
|
|
| -189 | -189 |
| Shrewsbury* |
|
|
| -341 | -341 |
2013 Total |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | -3582 | -3582 |
2014 | Feltham |
|
|
| -112 | -112 |
2014 Total |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | -112 | -112 |
2015 | Blantyre House* |
|
|
| -122 | -122 |
| Dover* |
|
|
| -401 | -401 |
| Feltham |
|
|
| -36 | -36 |
| Haslar* |
|
|
| -197 | -197 |
| Rochester |
|
|
| -60 | -60 |
2015 Total |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | -816 | -816 |
2016 | Haverigg |
| -335 |
|
| -335 |
| Hindley | -28 |
|
|
| -28 |
| Holloway* |
|
|
| -591 | -591 |
| Kennet* |
|
|
| -342 | -342 |
2016 Total |
| -28 | -335 | 0 | -933 | -1296 |
2017 | Glen Parva* |
|
|
| -638 | -638 |
| Guys Marsh |
|
|
| -66 | -66 |
| Liverpool |
|
|
| -172 | -172 |
| Rochester |
|
|
| -60 | -60 |
| Swinfen Hall |
|
|
| -30 | -30 |
2017 Total |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | -966 | -966 |
2018 | Birmingham |
|
|
| -306 | -306 |
| Haverigg |
|
|
| -40 | -40 |
| Liverpool |
|
|
| -234 | -234 |
2018 Total |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | -580 | -580 |
2019 | Aylesbury |
|
|
| -235 | -235 |
| Birmingham |
|
|
| -167 | -167 |
| Hindley | -28 |
|
|
| -28 |
| Swinfen Hall |
|
|
| -30 | -30 |
2019 Total |
| -28 | 0 | 0 | -432 | -460 |
2020 | Haverigg | -80 |
|
|
| -80 |
| Hewell Grange* |
|
|
| -224 | -224 |
| Spring Hill | -35 |
|
|
| -35 |
| Erlestoke | -80 |
|
|
| -80 |
| Ford | -96 |
|
|
| -96 |
| Foston Hall | -80 |
|
|
| -80 |
| Kirkham | -80 |
|
|
| -80 |
| Kirklevington Grange | -120 |
|
|
| -120 |
| Littlehey | -40 |
|
|
| -40 |
| Norwich | -40 |
|
|
| -40 |
| Standford Hill | -24 |
|
|
| -24 |
| Wayland | -80 |
|
|
| -80 |
2020 Total |
| -755 | 0 | 0 | -224 | -979 |
2021 | Spring Hill | -45 |
|
|
| -45 |
| Channings Wood | -40 |
|
|
| -40 |
| Ford | -179 |
|
|
| -179 |
| Hatfield | -80 |
|
|
| -80 |
| Highpoint | -40 |
|
|
| -40 |
| Hollesley Bay | -80 |
|
|
| -80 |
| Leyhill | -80 |
|
|
| -80 |
| Low Newton | -40 |
|
|
| -40 |
| New Hall | -40 |
|
|
| -40 |
| North Sea Camp | -120 |
|
|
| -120 |
| Northumberland | -40 |
|
|
| -40 |
| Prescoed | -40 |
|
|
| -40 |
| Send | -80 |
|
|
| -80 |
| Standford Hill | -56 |
|
|
| -56 |
| Sudbury | -40 |
|
|
| -40 |
| Whatton | -40 |
|
|
| -40 |
| Wymott | -40 |
|
|
| -40 |
2021 Total |
| -1080 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1080 |
2022 | Bedford |
|
|
| -32 | -32 |
| Eastwood Park | -20 |
|
|
| -20 |
| Guys Marsh | -40 |
|
|
| -40 |
| Spring Hill | -40 |
|
|
| -40 |
| Highpoint | -40 |
|
|
| -40 |
2022 Total |
| -140 | 0 | 0 | -32 | -172 |
2023 | Deerbolt |
|
|
| -19 | -19 |
| Gartree | -3 |
|
|
| -3 |
| Isle of Wight |
|
|
| -52 | -52 |
| Leicester | -6 |
|
|
| -6 |
2023 Total |
| -9 | 0 | 0 | -71 | -80 |
2024 | Deerbolt |
|
|
| -20 | -20 |
| Dartmoor** | -640 |
|
|
| -640 |
| Elmley | -114 |
|
|
| -114 |
| Gartree | -6 |
|
|
| -6 |
| Hull | -2 |
|
|
| -2 |
2024 Total |
| -762 | 0 | 0 | -20 | -782 |
2025 | Eastwood Park | -20 |
|
|
| -20 |
2025 Total |
| -20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -20 |
Total |
| -2822 | -335 | 0 | -9190 | -1247 |
*- Full Prison Closure | ||||||
** - Dartmoor has been temporarily closed since 2024 due to radon levels, assessment of options for this site is ongoing. | ||||||
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison officers have been (a) investigated, (b) disciplined and (c) dismissed for illicit relationships with inmates in each year since 2020, broken down by sex.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
We only hold data on cases where staff were recommended for dismissal, as individuals may choose to resign before a dismissal can be formally enacted. As a result, we have used this field to respond to the question to avoid undercounting the number of people involved. This data can be found in the following tables.
Table 1: Band 3-5 prison officers(1) investigated(2) due to an allegation of 'Inappropriate Relationship with a Prisoner / Ex-Prisoner'
| 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
Female | 31 | 36 | 24 | 32 | 34 | 31 |
Male | 9 | 9 | 4 | 7 | 6 | 11 |
Total | 40 | 45 | 28 | 39 | 40 | 42 |
Table 2: Band 3-5 prison officers facing a conduct and discipline(3), (4)charge of 'Inappropriate Relationship with a Prisoner / Ex-Prisoner'
| 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
|
Female | 9 | ~ | ~ | 12 | 16 | 18 |
|
Male | 3 | ~ | ~ | 5 | 3 | 5 |
|
Total | 12 | 11 | 14 | 17 | 19 | 23 |
|
Table 3: Band 3-5 prison officers recommended for dismissal following a conduct and discipline(3) charge of 'Inappropriate Relationship with a Prisoner / Ex-Prisoner'
| 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
Female | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ |
Male | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ |
Total | 8 | ~ | ~ | 12 | 14 | ~ |
Notes to tables:
1. Band 3-5 Officers includes Bands 3-4 / Prison Officers (incl specialists), Band 4 / Supervising Officers, and Band 5 / Custodial Managers.
2. Staff subject to at least one investigation that was concluded during the relevant year.
3. Conduct and discipline cases are defined as where a penalty has been imposed on a member of HMPPS staff for a reason of conduct.
4. Staff with at least one conduct and discipline case concluded during the year. Equally staff involved in more than one case during the year are counted only once.
5. Allegations which meet a criminal threshold will be referred to the Police for investigation. If a criminal justice outcome is secured, this will result in a summary dismissal as per PSI 10/2016 Conduct and Discipline and will not be recorded against a specific ‘type’ of misconduct in the Conduct and Discipline data,
6. Years run from 1st April to 31st March.
7. In terms of the Gender data presented, the MoJ HR system holds demographic data on staff. In the HR system there is a database field called Gender. The Gender field can only be one of two options – male or female. It is filled in for all staff when new staff records are created using details to confirm identity (i.e. name, date of birth, address) from official documentation supplied by the successful job applicant. However, it is possible for this information to be updated in line with departmental policy. The Office for Statistics Regulation recognises that this is an evolving area both for society and statistics, so advice and guidance is likely to change over time.
~ denotes suppressed values of 2 or fewer or other values which would allow values of 2 or fewer to be derived by subtraction. Low numbers are suppressed to prevent disclosure in accordance with the Data Protection Act, 2018.
Additional Note:
As with all HR databases, extracts are taken at a fixed point in time, to ensure consistency of reporting. However the database itself is dynamic, and where updates to the database are made late, subsequent to the taking of the extract, these updates will not be reflected in figures produced by the extract. For this reason, HR data are unlikely to be precisely accurate.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people serving an imprisonment for public protection sentence have died of natural causes while in prison since 2023.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Please see the number of people serving an imprisonment for public protection sentence who have died of natural causes while in prison since 2023 in the table below. Please note that these figures are derived from the HMPPS Deaths in Prison Custody database. As classification of deaths may change following inquest or as new information emerges, numbers may change from time to time. As with all deaths in custody, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman investigate each death.
Year | Number |
2023 | 8 |
2024 | 12 |
2025 | 6 |
Notes
Figures include incidents at HMPPS operated Immigration Removal Centres and during contracted out escorts (including contracted out escort of prisoners from STCs), but do not include incidents at Medway STC.
Deaths in prison custody figures include all deaths of prisoners arising from incidents during prison custody. They include deaths of prisoners while released on temporary license (ROTL) for medical reasons but exclude other types of ROTL where the state has less direct responsibility.
All classifications of deaths remain provisional until confirmed at inquest. Due to the number of deaths that remain unclassified (awaiting further information) in recent years, and the latest year particularly, caution should be used when comparing with earlier periods.
In addition to deaths in prison custody which actually occur in hospitals, hospices or nursing homes a small proportion will occur while in an ambulance on the way to hospital, while on escort.
An indeterminate sentence of Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) was introduced in 2005. It was intended for high risk prisoners considered ‘dangerous’ but whose offence did not merit a life sentence. The number of prisoners held on this sentence increased initially and the increase was offset by reductions elsewhere.
IPP prisoners in this table include both recalled and unreleased prisoners recorded as serving an IPP as their main sentence.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people serving an imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentence have taken their own lives while they (1) have absconded, (2) are out on release on temporary licence, and (3) have a concurrent sentence running alongside their IPP sentence.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many court interpreters have been requested for translation services in each year since 2020, broken down by the language requested.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Ministry of Justice publishes quarterly data on the volume of completed language interpreter and translation services requests, split by requestor type, as part of the Criminal court statistics release. However, published data is not broken down by language.
Criminal Court Statistics: Criminal court statistics - GOV.UK
The Ministry of Justice has provided a table in the attachment showing the number of completed service requests both through contracts (with thebigword Group Ltd and Clarion UK Ltd) and off-contract, for each year from 2020 to 2024, split by language. The table is a breakdown of the published figures, split by language.
Given the request for ‘court interpreters’, we have filtered the data to include criminal courts and civil & family courts. We have not included data for Tribunals or other types of Ministry of Justice interpreter usage.
Data has not been provided for 2025 as we do not yet have a complete dataset for this year.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate has his Department made for capital spending on the youth secure estate for the next year.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Budget allocation for the 2026/27 financial year within the Department has not yet been concluded and as such forecasted spend on the youth secure estate has not been committed.
Asked by: Richard Quigley (Labour - Isle of Wight West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what progress his Department has made on plans for the redevelopment of the former Camp Hill prison site on the Isle of Wight, including its sports facilities.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Ministry of Justice is currently evaluating all potential options for the site and is maintaining engagement with the local authority to explore appropriate future uses for both the site and the sports pitch once it is designated as surplus to operational requirements.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of the prison population is made up of foreign national offenders; and how many foreign national offenders have been removed from the UK in the last 12 months.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
As of 31 December 2025, Foreign National Offenders (FNOs) made up 12% of the prison population of England and Wales. This is the latest available published data and can be found at Table 1_Q_11 in the attached link: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6978d8c475d4437096552064/prison-population-31-Dec-2025.ods
The Home Office are responsible for the removal of FNOs, and their latest published data shows that between 1 February 2025 and 31 January 2026 there were 5,689 FNOs removed of which 3,044 were removed under the Early Removal Scheme. The full data can be found here: Returns from the UK between 1 December 2022 and 31 January 2026 - GOV.UK
All Foreign National Offenders who receive a prison sentence in the UK are referred for deportation at the earliest opportunity and will be barred from ever returning to the UK. Deportations of foreign national offenders including murderers and rapists are up 32%, with more than 8,700 deported since this Government came into power.