Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 25
25
MoJ's prison capacity expansion plans face significant funding and inflationary challenges.
Recommendation
MoJ told us it has multiple options to increase prison capacity, including building new prisons and refurbishing the existing estate. MoJ told us it plans to increase prisoner capacity by 20,000 places at a cost of £3.8 billion, but it will need more funding after 2024–25 to bring its planned six new prisons ‘online’.63 It told us that since September 2022 HMPPS has brought online 2,500 of these new places though refurbishing the existing prison estate. In addition, MoJ told us it will be “very challenging” to build new prison capacity and increase the number of staff in the prison and probation service given current inflation, with less money in real terms.64
Government Response
A response document is linked to this report, dated 14 February 2024. Response attribution to this conclusion has not been verified. Read the response document ↗