Question to the Ministry of Justice:

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.

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:

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.