Recommendation 6

The Ministry is still reeling from the long-term consequences of its unrealistic 2015 Spending Review settlement, and bears the financial and human cost of sustained underinvestment. The Ministry admits that its 2015 Spending Review settlement was over-optimistic and fundamentally unbalanced. It over-estimated how much income it would receive and overestimated the level of savings it could make in areas such as Legal Aid. This has created an insecure financial footing for the Department over the past five years, resulting in it repeatedly going cap- in-hand to HM Treasury to ask for additional funds or having to use funds from elsewhere. Prisoners and prison staff have been forced to bear the human cost of the maintenance backlogs, lack of capacity and poor-quality services that have been created as a result. Prisoner assaults on staff have increased by 100% between 2015– 2019, with one assault now taking place every hour. There were also over 50,000 incidents of self-harm in 2018; the Ministry is right to be worried by these numbers. Despite this position, the Ministry asserts it is confident that it has the necessary support from HM Treasury to deliver a safer and more sustainable prison estate. Recommendation: The Ministry should write to the Committee within three months setting out how it has incorporated lessons from the 2015 Spending Review in its preparations for the 2020 Spending Review. This should include demonstrating that it has robust contingency plans should it fail to secure the funding commitments it hopes for. Improving the prison estate 9 1 Maintaining the prison estate