Prison Capacity Statement The following Statement was made in the
House of Commons on Wednesday 30 November. “The first
responsibility of Government is to keep people safe. That means
taking dangerous criminals off the streets, and to do that we must
always ensure that we have sufficient prison places available to
serve the courts. This Government have been decisive in our tough
approach to crime. We are well on our way to the recruitment of
20,000 additional...Request free trial
Prison
Capacity
Statement
The following Statement was made in the House of Commons on
Wednesday 30 November.
“The first responsibility of Government is to keep people safe.
That means taking dangerous criminals off the streets, and to do
that we must always ensure that we have sufficient prison places
available to serve the courts. This Government have been decisive
in our tough approach to crime. We are well on our way to the
recruitment of 20,000 additional police officers. We have
legislated to introduce tougher sentences for the most serious
crimes, with rape prosecutions having increased by 3% between the
year ending June 2021 and now, and by 49% since 2019, and we are
committed to driving down the backlog of outstanding court cases
following the pandemic.
We have long anticipated the prison population rising as a result
of those measures, and that is why we are delivering the largest
prison building programme since the Victorian era, with 20,000
additional places. We have already created over 3,100 of them,
including the recent change of use of His Majesty’s Prison Morton
Hall and our brand-new prison, HMP Five Wells. A further 1,700
places are due to come online, with occupation in tranches from
next spring with the opening of HMP Fosse Way. This is in
addition to the thousands of further places that will become
available through additional house blocks—for example, at HMP
Stocken, which is due to finish construction next year —and major
refurbishment programmes across the existing estate. Just a few
weeks ago, I attended a ground- breaking ceremony at the site
beside HMP Full Sutton in Yorkshire, where we have started
construction for the next new prison, which will hold 1,500
category C prisoners when it opens in 2025.
However, in recent months we have experienced an acute and sudden
increase in the prison population, in part due to the aftermath
of the Criminal Bar Association strike action over the summer,
which led to a significantly higher numbers of offenders on
remand. With court hearings resuming, a surge in offenders is
coming through the criminal justice system, placing capacity
pressure on adult male prisons in particular.
The public rightly expect us to take the action necessary to hold
offenders who have been sentenced by the courts. That is why I am
announcing today that we have written to the National Police
Chiefs’ Council to request the temporary use of up to 400 police
cells, through an established protocol known as Operation
Safeguard. That will provide the immediate additional capacity we
need in the coming weeks to ensure the smooth running of the
prison estate, and to continue taking dangerous criminals off the
streets. I thank the National Police Chiefs’ Council for its
support in mobilising this operation. We already routinely work
hand in glove with police forces across the country to
occasionally use police cells to hold offenders overnight. The
triggering of Operation Safeguard is not an unprecedented move.
It is an established procedure that has been used before to
ensure that our prison system can operate effectively and safely
during periods of high demand. It last happened in 2006, and then
in 2007 to 2008.
With the expected increase in offenders coming into the estate
over the coming weeks, it is right that we give police forces as
much notice as possible of the short-term need to use their
cells, so that together we can safely and adequately ensure
availability of the spaces needed. The activation of Operation
Safeguard will ensure that His Majesty’s Prison and Probation
Service and police forces can jointly plan how and where those
places will be accessed. We are working with prison governors
across the estate to ensure that we safely maximise the places
available within our prisons. This plan, alongside our existing
plan to provide 20,000 modern places, will ensure that we have
enough places to cut crime and keep the public safe.
The capacity pressure is specific to the adult male estate, and
there is ample capacity in the women’s and youth estates. We have
delivered on our commitments to reduce the number of young people
and women in our prisons, helping us to tackle the drivers of
crime by focusing on rehabilitation. The Government are working
to drive down reoffending, and we are investing £200 million a
year by 2024-25 to get prison leavers into skills training, work
and stable accommodation. We are investing to make prisons safer
and more secure, rolling out almost 7,900 next-generation
body-worn video cameras to 56 prisons. In March we completed our
£100 million security investment programme to fight crime in
prisons, including tackling the smuggling of illicit items such
as drugs and mobile phones.
In conclusion, I thank the police for their support and pay
tribute to the front-line prison staff and police officers who
work tirelessly every day to keep the public safe. Taken together
with our programme to expand the prison estate, I have every
confidence that the commencement of these measures will ensure
that we continue to deliver justice, protect the public and
reduce reoffending, as the public would rightly expect, and I
commend this Statement to the House.”
3.23pm
(Lab)
My Lords, in response to the prison capacity update Statement
read in the other place, I draw Members’ attention to my role as
co-chair of the Justice Unions Parliamentary Group.
Using police cells and custody suites to house prisoners for any
extended period of time is, in my opinion, an admission of
failure by the Government. Does the Minister agree that
insufficient capacity to hold prisoners is directly linked to the
staffing and workload crisis within the probation service? Staff
under excessive pressure are more risk averse and therefore more
likely to recall offenders to prison. Does the Minister recognise
that one solution to the crisis is for probation to be properly
resourced and for workloads to be reduced? Does he agree that
probation can take the pressure off prisons?
There has been a 13% rise in licence recalls in the last year.
This should have indicated to the Government that prison places
were not sufficient to meet the current demand. The Prison
Governors Association has said that the use of police cells would
place extra pressure on the police service and increase risk to
prisoners. The association said:
“The use of police cells under these conditions is an exceptional
measure and, in our view, should be reserved for unforeseen
circumstances where no other options exist. We do not believe the
circumstances that sees this announcement are unforeseen and we
believe there are other options open to Government.”
Do the Government agree with the Prison Governors
Association?
If the cost of Operation Safeguard is to be met from within the
prison budget, what will be cut to pay for these prisoners being
placed in police cells? What is the cost of using the police
estate, and when do the Government plan to end Operation
Safeguard?
Prisons are in crisis. Almost every report from HM Inspectorate
of Prisons tells a tale of failure. Just two weeks ago, HM Prison
Exeter was given an urgent notification, with crumbling estates,
dangerous staff shortages, prisoner-on-prisoner violence and
rehabilitation all but non-existent. Ultimately, the public pay
the price because they are being kept less safe.
In the other place, Sir , chairman of the Justice Committee, pointed out that,
even with increased spending on maintenance, there is still a
significant backlog and shortfall in the maintenance budget. Many
prison cells are therefore out of commission and not usable, when
they ought to be brought back into use. What is being done to
accelerate the maintenance programme to get more cells back into
use?
Finally, the Minister will be aware that many of the people in
the criminal justice system are mentally unwell. Can he assure me
that these people will not be among those being held in the 400
police cells as part of Operation Safeguard?
(LD)
My Lords, this Statement betrays a panic reaction to a crisis of
the Government’s own making. Can the Minister say whether the
Government finally accept that their policy of increasing time
served in prison and their acceptance of prison sentence
inflation have increased the number of prisoners? Do they accept
that their policies have failed to cut our appallingly stubborn
reoffending rates?
Understaffing and overcrowding have given our prisons revolving
doors, reducing the chances of education, retraining and
rehabilitation within prisons; yet in this complacent Statement,
the Government accept no blame. “More rape prosecutions”, they
say. Can the Minister say how many more convicted rapists are in
prison now than were in 2019?
Then the Government blamed the criminal Bar strike. For years
they have paid scandalously low fees to criminal barristers, who
finally felt forced to take action. I remind the House of my
registered interest as a practising barrister, although I have
conducted no criminal cases for decades. If they had settled six
months earlier, on the terms that were ultimately offered, how
many police cells would now be unnecessary?
How do the Government plan to create more prison spaces, as they
say they do, apart from the building program, without yet more
overcrowding or even more shunting of prisoners around the prison
estate to wherever space may be found, disrupting training,
release preparation, visiting arrangements and family
relationships, all of which are essential to rehabilitation?
I say yes to body cams, as mentioned in the Statement, and yes to
preventing smuggling, but may we please have an end to
short-term, panic responses to increased prisoner numbers, for
which the Government’s failures alone are responsible, and have a
corresponding increase in concentration on rehabilitation?
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice
() (Con)
My Lords, I thank noble Lords for the points just made. Before I
reply to them, I should say that Operation Safeguard is a
temporary measure to meet a recent surge in demand for prison
places and to keep the public safe. This is due in part to an
exceptional number of prisoners held on remand as a result of the
barristers’ strike, and the surge in offenders receiving
custodial sentences. The prison population rose by over 1,500 in
October and November, a highly unusual increase, which has caused
pressure on the adult male estate but not the female or youth
justice estates.
Operation Safeguard is a long-standing scheme, also used by the
Labour Government, which allows about 400 police cells to be made
available for prisoners to be held temporarily before they are
moved to prison. It enables better management of the reception
process, and in the main, it is anticipated that prisoners are
held in police cells for only one night before being moved into a
reception prison. This operation enables the police to mobilise
their operations and work more closely with HMPPS.
Turning to the various points made, the Government do not accept
the link made in relation to the probation service by the noble
Lord, Lord Ponsonby. We are doing our very best to increase
resources for the probation service, to recruit more probation
officers and to improve the service to the best of our ability.
This extra pressure has been rather unexpected. The Government do
not accept that no other options exist; otherwise, we would not
have triggered Operation Safeguard, the Government’s primary duty
being to keep the public safe. The operation will come to an end
as soon as possible, but I cannot give a date.
We are pursuing the prison maintenance programme as far as we
can. We have gone around in a circle to some extent: the
maintenance work, which was increased recently, has left us with
fewer cells. Within the operational possibilities, improving
maintenance in prisons is a priority.
As far as mental health is concerned, respectfully, I entirely
agree that vulnerable offenders, whether suffering with their
mental health or otherwise, should not be part of Operation
Safeguard. My information is that those prisoners are not being
held in police cells and that prisoners are properly assessed
before they move to prison cells.
On the other points raised, the question of sentencing is a
matter for the courts. It is right to point out that reoffending
is falling, albeit slowly. But it is falling, and we seem to be
on a good track in that regard. The Government are fully
committed to the rehabilitation of prisoners. On earlier
occasions in this House, we have discussed the steps taken,
including education in prisons; employment advisers in prisons;
accommodation for prisoners being released; and equipping
prisoners with an ID pack consisting of a bank account, national
insurance number and so forth. That rehabilitation programme is
contributing to the steady, albeit slow, fall in reoffending. I
hope I have dealt with the main points raised.
3.34pm
(CB)
My Lords, can the Minister point to any empirical evidence or
analysis that demonstrates that the doubling of the prison
population in the last 40 years has made this country more
law-abiding and less violent? Is he able to commit the Government
to a new prison policy that is based on merit and not
headlines?
(Con)
My Lords, I am not in a position to comment on the last 40 years,
but, respectfully, I would not make any link between the
Government’s policy on prisons and the other matters to which the
noble Lord referred. On the second part of his question, as I
said just now, sentencing policy is a matter for the courts and
not the Government.
Lord Clarke of Nottingham (Con)
My Lords, I think I am correct in saying that we have the second
highest incarceration rate in the western world by far, after the
United States of America. I have been around for the last 40
years and, in recent years, successive Governments—Labour and
Conservative—have tended to introduce an annual criminal justice
Bill increasing the maximum sentences for offences that have
featured most in the popular press of the previous 12 months. As
there is no evidence whatever that the length of sentence has any
effect on the incidence of crime, and as the Minister also
acknowledges the value of rehabilitation—it is the most valuable
service prisons can give the public, because it saves them from
future offences that might be committed, unless people go
straight when they leave—does he agree that reversing the trend
on sentencing and concentrating more on rehabilitation work,
which he rightly praises, would be a valuable change in criminal
justice policy if the new Government were to adopt it in the next
two years?
(Con)
I thank my noble friend Lord Clarke for that question. The
Government place the highest premium on rehabilitation and
reducing the reoffending rate. The Government’s position is that
this is not the moment to consider a change in sentencing
policy.
(Lab)
My Lords, will the Minister look at, and be so kind as to bone up
on, the draft mental health Bill? A section of it deals with the
prison population and the inadequate treatment currently given to
those with mental health problems. There are some beneficial
changes coming, but we need much more. They address only the
really vulnerable, and there are many people in prison with
serious mental health problems that are not being addressed. The
way forward is to give them greater support and assistance. In
that context, we perhaps ought to take a more liberal view and
not solely employ psychiatrists but bring in therapists to assist
with rehabilitation.
(Con)
I thank the noble Lord and will certainly bone up on the mental
health Bill, as he suggests. It is true that the proportion of
prisoners suffering from mental health problems is too high. We,
as a Government and as a nation, should try to do something about
that, and I hope the mental health Bill will represent progress
in that regard.
The Lord
My Lords, my friend the right reverend Prelate the much regrets that she
is not able to be present today. I know she shares my concern
over this Statement since we, like others who have spoken,
believe that the emergency use of police cells for prisoners is
deeply worrying. We greatly welcome the increase in the number of
police officers but feel that it is connected to the larger
number of people going to prison, and that that should not be the
case. Initially I wanted to ask about rehabilitation, but that
question has already been addressed. I accept that the question
of sentences is for the courts, but can the Minister help us by
saying what the Government are doing to promote community and
non-custodial sentences, rather than people simply going to
prison?
(Con)
My Lords, as I have just said, that is an area for the courts.
Judges, of course, have fairly extensive training in sentencing
and I think I can fairly say that no judge would send anyone to
prison if a community or other sentence was a realistic
option.
(Non-Afl)
My Lords, I concede that many members of the public want tougher
sentences for serious crimes, but can the Minister comment on a
key point made at the North Wales Women’s Centre’s 21st
anniversary in Rhyl that I was at the other day? They made the
point that far too many prisoners are locked up for short,
two-week sentences for non-violent crimes, rather than the
Government investing in alternatives to custody. Secondly, if
capacity is at such a crisis point, will the Government use the
opportunity to finally deal with IPP sentences? They were so
awful they were abolished in 2012, but still thousands on IPP are
languishing in prisons indefinitely. It is time to end them and
free up the space.
(Con)
My Lords, in relation to the comment from Rhyl in north Wales, I
entirely take the point that is being made. Unfortunately, the
courts sometimes feel that a short sentence is the only
available, or the best, option in those circumstances—and that,
as I have already said, is a matter for the courts. As far as IPP
prisoners are concerned, the Government will respond to the
recent report from the Justice Committee of the other place, I
hope next week.
(Con)
My Lords, my noble friend said that female prisoners were not
involved in today’s announcement, and I completely understand
that. However, is it not time to move to a stage where men who
are physically male are not allowed to share or be incarcerated
in women’s prisons? Surely, we can have enough respect for women
to end this deeply unfortunate practice.
(Con)
My Lords, action is being taken on transgender issues in the
prison estate. I do not have the details with me, but I will
write to my noble friend with the up-to-date position.
(CB)
My Lords, the Minister has already said that if the Government
had an alternative, they would put it in place. The issue of IPP
sentences has been mentioned: 1,988 men are held under IPP
charge. They should be set free. The former Prime Minister from
the Minister’s own party decided that that was no longer an
appropriate sentence, and why the Government persist with it is a
bemusement. The number of those held on remand has tripled in the
last 15 years and many of those remand prisoners who are young
black men do not need to be held in prisons. They are being
treated in a discriminating and racially inappropriate manner,
simply because of suspicion. The Government ought to end the
excessive use of prison for remand.
(Con)
The matter of prisoners being held on remand, particularly black
prisoners, is again a matter for the courts, before the question
of remand or bail comes. The Government respectfully would not
accept that it is a matter of racial discrimination. If it were,
it would be regrettable—I can certainly say that. I would point
out to your Lordships that, in terms of young offenders, and in
particular young black offenders, there is very significant
success in diversion from the court process, away from youth
courts and so forth, so that the number of young offenders coming
before the courts has fallen very significantly in recent
years.
(Non-Afl)
My Lords, in my experience, overcrowding in prisons leads to
reduced security, which concerns me. The Minister will be aware
of the recent case of David Norris, the murderer of Stephen
Lawrence, who was found with a mobile phone in his cell at
Dartmoor for the second time. Will the Minister tell the House
what action the MoJ has taken to stop this egregious breach of
security?
(Con)
My Lords, I cannot comment on the specific case, although I know
that action has been taken. Again, I can follow up with details
of what action has been. The Ministry and HMPPS do all in their
power to reduce overcrowding wherever possible. I accept the
noble Lord’s observation that this needs constant attention.
(Con)
My Lords, it is interesting that the whole increase is in the
adult male estate. It is also interesting that there is a
tremendous emphasis on not having women in prison, one of the
reasons being that they are primary carers and that relationships
are important to them. We have something like 4,000 women in
prison and 80,000 men in prison. We do not have the same emphasis
for the men. The Statement talks of rehabilitation and my noble
friend has also mentioned employment, education and training.
There was no mention of relationships, yet the Government’s own
data says that prisoners who have family relationships are 39%
less likely to reoffend than those who do not. I suggest that the
Minister and all other Ministers mention family relationships as
part of the reducing reoffending programme, because 39% is not a
statistic that we should ignore.
(Con)
I accept my noble friend’s points about family relationships and
their importance. They should be borne in mind in the
rehabilitation programme and in post-release care.
(Lab)
My Lords—
(LD)
Community service orders are far more effective than short-term
sentences. As a large number of cases go through magistrates’
courts, are we making effective use of such sentences? If not,
why not?
(Con)
As I think I said earlier, I am sure that a court would always
prefer to impose a community sentence if it can.
(GP)
I would like to correct the Minister. He said in an earlier
answer that part of the problem was the barristers’ strike. That
is absolutely not true. Part of the problem is that the
Government are not funding them properly; that is why we have
such a problem. On a wider issue, the Government have started
sending climate change protesters to prison for quite long
periods of time. I suggest that it would be more appropriate to
send the climate criminals to prison and let the protesters
out.
(Con)
On a point of detail, the Government do not send anyone to
prison. These are court decisions.
(Lab)
I apologise for my earlier intervention. The Prison Officers’
Association tells us that there is some space in our prisons:
even after the need to do more repair and maintenance, there is
still capacity there. But the association says it cannot use that
capacity because of recruitment and retention problems. What are
the Minister and the Government going to do to staff up our
prisons so that they can use the space that they have?
(Con)
We are working hard on a recruitment programme for prison
officers. I do not have the exact figures in front of me, but I
think we have recruited an additional 5,000 or so in recent
times. I will give the noble Lord the exact figure as soon as I
can obtain it.
(CB)
My Lords, many prisoners arrive illiterate or barely literate,
yet earlier this year His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons
said that
“it is astonishing that prisoners can serve their sentence
without being taught to read or to improve their reading
skills”.
So they leave prison illiterate, cannot find work and reoffend.
Will the Minister undertake the cost-saving measure of ensuring
that every prisoner is taught to read?
(Con)
My Lords, in relation to specific costs, no, but in relation to
the general question of whether we should improve and develop
educational facilities in prison, particularly so that prisoners
can read, yes, the Government entirely agree with that
aspiration.
(Con)
My Lords, I serve on the Joint Committee on the Draft Mental
Health Bill, which has been mentioned before. In a secure mental
health hospital, there will be prisoners who are civilian
patients as well as people who have been transferred from the
prison estate. Hopefully, of course, they are treated and then
are well enough to go back into the prison estate. However, do we
have an issue here of people still being within secure mental
health hospitals, where beds are scarce, because they cannot be
moved back into the prison estate?
(Con)
We do have an issue, as my noble friend puts it, around managing
mental health in the community and among prisoners. I hope the
Mental Health Bill will help to address that. This is an ongoing
problem of which the Government are well aware and to which we
are working towards solutions.
(Con)
My Lords, I would hope not only that those in prison are able to
read but that we are doing everything we can in the education
system to ensure that no child leaves school without being able
to read and write. What are the Government doing to ensure that
children and young people are made aware of the dangers of prison
and illegal acts much sooner in the system, so that we are not
catching people after they have offended?
(Con)
My Lords, that is a question directed to the education system and
slightly outside my present brief. But I would hope that
everything is being done to educate children in following the
right way of life.
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