Recommendation 31

The Ministry and HMPPS told us that the fall in cases coming through from the courts, and the subsequent lower demand for prison places, had given it the headroom it needed to manage the prison estate during the pandemic. They explained that at the start of the pandemic they had aimed for headroom of between 3,500 and 5,550 places to deliver a safe COVID-19 regime. HMPPS said that, despite the need to create opportunities for people to shield and to isolate prisoners with symptoms of COVID-19, it had “got pretty close to that”.71 The Ministry recognised that it was vital that it was able to provide the places that would be needed as courts started sending people to prison again.72 64 IPE0003 - Improving the prison estate, Prison Reform Trust, 1 July 2020 65 IPE0003 - Improving the prison estate, Prison Reform Trust, 1 July 2020; and IPE0007 - Improving the prison estate, Professor Loraine Gelsthorpe (Professor of Criminology & Criminal Justice, Director of the Institute of Criminology at Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge) 1 July 2020 66 Qq 27–28 67 Qq 21, 61, IPE0009 - Improving the prison estate, Howard League for Penal Reform, 1 July 2020 68 Ministry of Justice, Press Release – Priority courts to make sure justice is served, 27 March 2020; and Courts and Tribunals Judiciary, Review of court arrangements due to COVID-19, 23 March 2020 69 Q 116 70 HM Courts and Tribunals Service, COVID-19: Overview of HMCTS response, 1 July 2020 71 Qq 21, 61, 108 72 Qq 46, 116 Improving the prison estate 19