Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the future demand for prison places in the West Midlands; and what assessment he has made of the capacity of West Midlands prisons to meet that future demand.

Decisions on the future demand for prison places in the West Midlands will depend on population trends and projections over the coming years.

This Government will always ensure that we have enough prison places for those sent to us by the courts, including those in the West Midlands. 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 around 3000 more adult male prison places than we inherited from the previous Government. We also have a range of contingencies available to manage temporary or unexpected increases in the population.

In addition, we will have delivered around 500 more places across the prison estate by April 2015 through small scale investments. This includes 10 places at HMP Hewell and 12 places at HMP Stoke Heath in the West Midlands.