Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what new additional capacity in the adult prison estate is (a) planned or (b) under construction; which prisons are so affected; how many additional units are being created through such work; and when each additional space will come on stream.

This Government will always ensure that we have enough prison places for those sent to us by the courts and we continue to modernise the prison estate so that it delivers best value for the taxpayer.

We have a long term strategy for managing the prison estate which will provide more adult male prison capacity than we inherited from the previous Government. We also have a range of contingencies available to manage temporary or unexpected increases in the population.

Four new house-blocks (which will be completed by May 2015) consisting of a total of 1,250 new places are being delivered at HMPs Thameside, The Mount, Parc and Peterborough. These places will open when they are required.

We are also delivering around 500 places by April 2015 through small scale investments at the following prisons:

Cardiff

Chelmsford

Deerbolt

Hatfield

Hewell

Hollesley Bay

Humber

Kirkham

Lancaster Farms

Littlehey

The Mount

Norwich

Standford Hill

Stoke Heath

Swansea

Thorn Cross

Wandsworth

Warren Hill

Wymott

We are also constructing a new, modern 2,106 place prison for North Wales in Wrexham, to be opened in 2017.