Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to his Department’s publication, HM Prison and Probation Service COVID-19 Official Statistics Data to 31 October 2020, published on 13 November 2020, when he expects HMPPS to meet the target headroom of 5,500 across the prison estate in England and Wales.

In March, HMPPS implemented a ‘compartmentalisation’ strategy to isolate the sick, shield the vulnerable and quarantine new arrivals. As of 16 November, 100% of prisons have implemented this strategy, and the latest public health advice suggests these measures have limited the spread of the virus and minimised the number of deaths.

Using modelling from Public Health England, HMPPS estimated that creating a headroom across the prison estate of 5,500 (5,000 in the adult male estate) would allow all prisons to fully implement this strategy. The required headroom has been achieved through a combination of reductions in operational capacity, new prison accommodation (which has enabled prisons to hold an increased number of prisoners in single cell accommodation), releases from prison, and reduced receptions into prison.