Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department is taking steps to increase prison capacity in the West Midlands.

Our number one priority is protecting the public and cutting crime by taking dangerous criminals off the streets.

To do this, we are committed to delivering 20,000 additional, modern prison places. This is the biggest prison build programme in a century, ensuring the right conditions are in place to rehabilitate prisoners and helping to cut crime to protect the public. In the West Midlands, we are delivering a major refurbishment at HMP Birmingham that includes a full refurbishment of A, B and C wings. The project will upgrade cells to safe standards along with supporting ancillaries to enable c.300 places to be brought back online.