Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department plans to close prisons in (a) the North West and (b) England in the next five years.

We will always have enough prison places for offenders committed to custody by the courts. We are investing £1.3 billion to transform our prison estate and deliver up to 10,000 new places. This includes pushing ahead with plans to close or redevelop older prisons and open new accommodation in this parliament, however, no decisions have been made about future prison closures beyond those which have already been announced.