Oral Answers to Questions

Patrick Hurley Excerpts

Tuesday 10th November 2026 Commons Chamber

[Alex Norris]

I am slightly surprised that the hon. Gentleman thinks that making a commencement order for legislation in this place is not putting something on the record. I find that hard to understand. He asks how we got into this situation. I gently point him towards the hon. Member for West Suffolk (Nick Timothy), the Leader of the Opposition and the shadow Minister for policy development, the hon. Member for Harborough, Oadby and Wigston (Neil O’Brien), all of whom admitted that they did not build enough places. He talks about exemptions, but I note that their early release schemes have no exemptions.

[Patrick Hurley (Southport) (Lab)]

T2. Members across the House will remember the desperate prison capacity situation back in July 2024, when fewer than 100 prison places were left on the whole estate and the whole justice system was on the brink of collapse thanks to the shocking incompetence of the Conservative party. Will the Minister update the House on the progress made on fixing that Tory mess through the Government’s prison rebuilding programme?

[The Minister for Prisons, Probation and Reducing Reoffending (Catherine McKinnell)]

We are making good progress. Around 3,300 places out of our target of 14,000 have been delivered since we took office, including a 170-place refurbished wing at HMP Norwich, which opened in June this year, bringing these places into the 21st century. We are also bringing forward £110 million from existing budgets to deliver additional prison places even faster. We are determined to clean up the mess that the previous Government left us and to build a criminal justice system that is fit for today.