Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the current capacity of the prison system.

As at 7 January 2022, the total operational capacity of prisons in England and Wales was 81,291.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) publishes weekly prison population and capacity information through the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/prison-population-statistics-2022

We are committed to building as many prison places as we need. Over the next ten years, additional capacity will come in to use for a range of reasons, including new build prison accommodation, existing accommodation returning to use following the completion of essential maintenance or places coming into use following a change in function. We are investing £3.8 billion to deliver 20,000 additional, modern prison places including 2,000 temporary prison places across England and Wales. This includes creating four new prisons over the next six years and expanding another four prisons over the next three years. The first of these, HMP Five Wells in Northamptonshire, is due to open in February and work is also well underway at Glen Parva, Leicestershire.