Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 11
11
The Department expects that the demand for prison places will increase significantly.
Conclusion
The Department expects that the demand for prison places will increase significantly. Its plans to increase the number of days that the Crown Court hears cases, and the resultant reduction in the backlog, will likely mean more people being convicted and sent to prison. The recruitment of an additional 20,000 police officers by 2023, announced by the government in October 2019, will also mean more cases coming to court and likely more people sent to prison.17
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
4.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 4.2 The government is committed to building as many prison places as are needed and is currently undertaking the largest prison build programme in a century - investing £3.8 billion to deliver 20,000 modern prison places by the mid-2020s. Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) has already delivered around 2,700 of these through a combination of refurbishments, installing temporary accommodation, repurposing the Morton Hall Immigration Removal Centre back into a prison and the opening of HM Prison Five Wells. 4.3 The government continues to invest in critical maintenance projects to ensure as many prison places as possible are kept online and prisoners and staff live and work in a safe environment, as well as recruiting sufficient staff to manage the increase in prison population. Prison demand is sensitive to police activity, including police recruitment, charge volumes and the overall case mix, as well as the rate of recovery in the criminal courts. MoJ continues to monitor court activity and regularly updates its modelling of court recovery to ensure planning is based on the most up-to-date picture of likely demand. 4.4 In December 2021, the department published the Prisons Strategy White Paper, which sets out an ambitious vision for the prison system - one which protects the public by keeping serious offenders in a custodial setting and which also works to tackle the underlying causes of reoffending.