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Prisons: Population

My Lords, I completely agree with the noble Lord’s last remarks. We should intervene earlier with those identified as being at risk of committing criminal offences. I hope that the noble Lord read the Cabinet Office paper published yesterday or the day before that dealt specifically with that issue. Most of the 500 prison places that will start to come on stream in January will be within the curtilage of individual prisons. Perhaps I may write to the noble Lord and put in the Library the precise location of each of those 500 places, all of which will be secure, not open, prison places. The noble Lord asked what was the change in the provisions allowing prisoners on temporary licence to go home. The essential change is that instead of a licence to go home being granted before the end of a sentence, each prisoner within the categories specified in my Statement will have 18 days of licence to go home at the end of their sentence. As long as it happens at the end of the sentence, the prison place can be treated as having been given up.