Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of savings to the public purse which will accrue from the closure of prisons in the UK in the next three years.

We will always have enough prison places for those sent to us by the courts and will aim to deal with the prison population in a way that gives taxpayers the best possible value for money. Unless there is an unexpected and significant drop in the prison population there are no plans to close further prison capacity in England and Wales in the next 3 years.