Jo Stevens – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jo Stevens on 2016-02-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department has taken to reduce overcrowding on the prison estate in England and Wales; and if he will make a statement.

Andrew Selous

As the Secretary of State has said, the prison estate is overcrowded and out of date. That’s why we have announced that we will close down aging and ineffective prisons, replacing them with new facilities fit for the modern world.

We are investing £1.3 billion to reform and modernise the prison estate to make it more efficient, safer and focused on supporting prisoner rehabilitation. In our new prisons we will design out those features that facilitate bullying, drug-taking and violence.

We are also constructing a modern 2,106 place prison, HMP Berwyn, in North Wales, that will be opened in 2017 and are building two new house-blocks at existing prison sites Stocken and Rye Hill.

We remain committed to ensuring that there are enough places for offenders sentenced to custody by the courts and making sure that these places are safe, decent and secure.