Member

Let me begin by setting out some context on prison places. As right honourable and honourable Members will be aware, on 4 December, the National Audit Office published a scathing report, Increasing the Capacity of the Prison Estate to Meet Demand. That report is unequivocal in its criticism of the previous Government’s approach to the criminal justice system, including their failure to deliver on their commitment to build 20,000 additional prison places by the mid-2020s. Only 500 additional cells were added to the overall stock of prison places. While the previous Government continued to promise prison places, there were significant delays to projects—in some cases, they ran years behind schedule—and a failure to address rising demand has left the system thousands of places short of the capacity it requires.