Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 31
Fifteenth Report - Improving the prison estate
Published 11 Sep 2020
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Improving the prison estate All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
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
From: Public Accounts Committee, Fifteenth Report - Improving the prison estate (HC 244), 11 September 2020
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 18 November 2020 (deadline 11 November 2020).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government states that it "agrees with the Committee's recommendation" on each of the six recommendations, with target dates between December 2020 and April 2021.
- On a long-term prison estate strategy, the department will write to the Committee in January 2021, then "proposes to consult" in early 2021 before publishing a comprehensive strategy in summer 2021.
- On women's prisons, the department "accepts this recommendation" and will write in January 2021; the summer 2021 estate strategy "will include how it plans to improve conditions in the women's estate".
- On capacity, it will publish prison population projections "by the end of 2020" and, "By April 2021", provide an update on progress, including plans for expected use of temporary accommodation.
- On reducing reoffending, it has "committed to publishing an update on this work in due course" and to write to the Committee "before the end of 2020".