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Written question asked by Richard Holden (Conservative) on Friday, 29 August 2025, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 2 September 2025. It was answered by Nicholas Dakin (Labour) on Friday, 5 September 2025 on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.


Prison Accommodation

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 14 February 2025 to Question 29554 on Prison Accommodation, how many prison places were created as a result of crowding between (a) May 1997 and (b) 2010.

Answer

The previous Labour Government added nearly 28,000 places to the prison estate between 1997 and 2010. However, available records do not provide a breakdown for these figures of these places by category. It is therefore not possible to provide the number of places created through crowding.

Prison crowding data is published annually in Annex 2 of the HMPPS Annual Digest, April 2024 to March 2025 - 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.

This Government is delivering the largest expansion of prison places since the Victorian era – with 2,500 new spaces already delivered and 14,000 on track for delivery by 2031.


Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
71240
Session
2024-26
Related items
Prison Accommodation
Friday, 14 February 2025
Written questions
House of Commons
Subjects
Prison accommodation
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk