Written question asked by Richard Holden (Conservative) on Thursday, 6 February 2025, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 10 February 2025. It was answered by Nicholas Dakin (Labour) on Friday, 14 February 2025 on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.
Prison Accommodation
- Question
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To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 5 February 2025 to Question 26918 on Prisons: Construction, how many existing cells had additional beds installed to increase capacity between (a) May 1997 and May 2010 and (b) May 2010 and July 2024; how many prison places were removed in prisons that closed in the same period; and where those closed prisons were.
- Answer
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Data on the number of cells which had additional beds installed is not held by the Ministry of Justice for the period requested. Prison crowding data is published annually in Annex 2 of the HMPPS Annual Digest, April 2023 to March 2024 - GOV.UK. This publication provides the percentage of prisoners held in crowded accommodation in each year in each prison since 1999. There is no earlier information on crowding available.
Available records indicate that, between May 1997 and May 2010, the total operational capacity of the prison system increased from 61,927 to 89,757, a net increase of 27,830 places. This is a net figure that takes into account all decreases including prison closures, and all increases including new accommodation or crowding of existing accommodation. Data on the number of places removed from prison closures during this period is not held by the Ministry of Justice.
The net change in prison operational capacity between May 2010 and April 2024 was c500 places. The requested information on prison closures between May 2010 and July 2024 has been provided in a table below:
Prison
Number of Prison Places Closed
Year
Ashwell
-214
2011
Lancaster Castle
-243
2011
Brockhill (Part of Hewell)
-170
2011
Latchmere House
-207
2011
Wellingborough
-588
2012
Camp Hill (Part of Isle of Wight)
-595
2013
Gloucester
-321
2013
Canterbury
-314
2013
Shrewsbury
-341
2013
Bullwood Hall
-228
2013
Kingston
-205
2013
Shepton Mallet
-189
2013
Northallerton
-252
2013
Reading
-320
2013
Dorchester
-291
2013
Blundeston
-526
2013
Blantyre House
-122
2015
Haslar
-197
2015
Dover
-401
2015
Holloway
-591
2016
Kennet
-342
2016
Glen Parva
-638
2017
Hewell Grange (Part of Hewell)
-224
2020
Total
-7519
Our recently announced 10-year Prison Capacity Strategy outlines a target of 14,000 new prison places by 2031, supported by £2.3 billion in funding for prison builds over the next two years.
Secondary information
- Type
- Written question
- Reference
- 29554
- Session
- 2024-26
- Related items
- Subjects
- Construction Prison accommodation
- Contains statistics
- Yes
- Link
- View this Written question on www.parliament.uk
Librarians' tools
- Timestamp
- 2025-09-05 18:34:21 +0100
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- http://data.parliament.uk/writtenparliamentaryquestion/commons/2024-25/29554
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