Written Question·Ministry of Justice·UIN 92680

Prison Accommodation: East of England and South East

Tabled: 19 November 2025
Answered: 27 November 2025

Question

Ben Obese-Jecty

Conservative — Huntingdon

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the answer of 17th November 2025, to question 88464 on Prison Accommodation, how many a) places at new prisons, b) permanent cells at existing prisons and c) Rapid Deployment Cells will form the 2,400 places in the South East and East region.

Answer

Jake Richards

As set out in the 10-Year Prison Capacity Strategy, published in December 2024, we are delivering an additional 14,000 prison places, and aim to do so by 2031, having already delivered c.2,600 since taking office. The following table provides a breakdown of the places to be delivered in each region by new prison places, permanent cells at existing prisons and rapid deployment cells (RDCs), with each number rounded to the nearest 50 places. Due to rounding, total places may not align to the other categories.

Region

Total Places

New Prison Places

Permanent Cells

RDCs

South West & Central

c.3,250

c.1,450

c.1,600

c.200

South East & East

c.2,400

0

c.2,100

c.250

Wales

c.350

0

c.250

c.100

Midlands

c.2,750

c.2,000

c.700

c.50

North West

c.2,900

c.1,700

c.1,100

c.100

North East

c.650

0

c.400

c.200

This breakdown represents current projections which may vary when compared to previous projections due to changes in programme scope or our delivery approach, as well as the inclusion in the original response of temporary additional places used in private prisons (which are not covered in the questions above).

Due to rounding, and contingency within the programmes, our delivery total exceeds the 14,000 place commitment.