Recommendation 14

The 2020 spending review included £4 billion in capital funding to support the provision of 18,000 new prison places over four years. But beyond this isolated multi-year commitment, the one-year spending review settlement makes it difficult for the Ministry and its agencies to plan for the long term. The Ministry and HMPPS were confident that the planned prison places and temporary accommodation would be enough to meet the expected increase in the prison population to 96,000 prisoners by 2026 and that they will receive enough revenue funding to service this new capacity. They recognised that uncertainty remains in the system that could impact demand projections, including the effects of decisions of how the 20,000 new police officers are deployed.20 15 Committee of Public Accounts, Transforming courts and tribunals, Fifty-sixth Report of Session 2017–19, HC 976, 20 July 2018 16 Qq 14–17 17 Qq 51–53 18 The Legal Education Foundation, Digital Justice: HMCTS data strategy and delivering access to justice, October 2019 19 Qq 10–14 20 Qq 46, 58, 59, 60 12 Key challenges facing the Ministry of Justice