Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the Government's policy is to tackle overcrowding in prisons; and if he will make a statement.

We are committed to making prisons places of safety and reform and have ambitious plans to transform our estate, including reducing overcrowding. We are delivering up to 10,000 new prison places across the country, and recently announced that two new prisons would be built at Wellingborough and Glen Parva where all cells in normal accommodation are being designed as single person cells.

Prison governors are responsible for ensuring the level of operational capacity is set to reflect the provision of safe and decent accommodation.