Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to his Department’s press release entitled Government action to avert summer prison disaster, published on 29 January 2026, on what date the 2,900 prison spaces were approved for construction.

This Government has delivered c.2,900 additional prison places and construction on these began between 2022 and 2024. We have invested £4.7 billion over the spending review period to enable the delivery of these additional prison places at pace and have maintained our target to deliver a total of 14,000 by 2031. The places delivered by this Government so far were approved for construction between 2020 and 2024.