PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Prisons: Construction (22 July 2020)

The Prime Minister has previously made clear his focus on tackling crime and last year announced investment of up to £2.5 billion to create 10,000 additional prison places that are decent, safe and secure and support the modernisation of the prison estate.

On 28 June 2020, I announced that four new prisons are to be built across England over the next six years (HCWS320). Together, these four prisons will create around 65% of the 10,000 additional places and will build on the design and progress that we have already made at Wellingborough and Glen Parva where construction of two new 1,680 place category C Resettlement prisons continues.

As well as building four new prisons, our programme to deliver 10,000 additional places includes expanding and refurbishing the current estate by building additional houseblocks and bringing decommissioned places back into use at the required standard.

Prison numbers can fluctuate, which is why we have a robust set of plans in place to ensure we will always have enough places for offenders sent to custody by the courts. As such, we keep the prison population and capacity under careful review to ensure that there is always sufficient capacity. We are planning our longer-term supply to meet future demand.