Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how he plans to reduce his capital budget in order to fund the Defence Investment Plan; and whether these reductions will impact prison expansion or construction.

Departments have been asked to contribute 1p in every £1 of their capital budgets to fund this Government’s Defence Investment Plan, helping keep the country safe in an increasingly volatile world. The Ministry of Justice will set out further impacts on specific policies and programmes in due course.

As set out in the December 2024 10-Year Prison Capacity Strategy, we are committed to delivering an additional 14,000 prison places and aim to do so by 2031; we have already delivered c.3,200 of these since taking office. We have committed £4.7bn over the spending review period (26/27 to 29/30) towards the delivery of these places.