Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans his Department has to close older prison facilities and open new ones over the next five years.

The Government set out its ambition for a reformed prison estate in the November 2016 Prison Safety and Reform White Paper including announcing building modern prisons on the sites of the former HM Prison and Young Offender Institution Glen Parva and HM Prison Wellingborough. Through the Ministry of Justice’s prison estate transformation programme we are getting the basics right by building decent prisons to improve rehabilitation and create safe and secure environments for staff and offenders. We will close prisons that cannot provide decent facilities, are expensive to operate and/or maintain; reinvesting savings into the maintenance or enhancement of the prisons in the estate.

On 22 March 2017 the Government announced plans, subject to planning approvals, value for money and affordability, to build four modern prisons: adjacent to HM Prison Full Sutton in Yorkshire, Port Talbot in Neath and redevelop HM Prison and Young Offender Institution Rochester in Kent and HM Prison and Young Offender Institution Hindley, in Greater Manchester. Construction of a new 202 place houseblock at HMP Stocken, in Rutland is already underway. This will be ready for use from December 2018.

No decisions have been made about prison closures other than those already announced.