Prison Accommodation

(asked on 2nd July 2019) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average level of prison population above Certified Normal Accommodation capacity was in each of the prisons in the 10 Prisons Project in (a) the last six months of 2017 and (b) the last six months of 2018.


Answered by
Robert Buckland Portrait
Robert Buckland
This question was answered on 8th July 2019

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) publishes monthly individual prison population and capacity information through the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/prison-population-statistics

The table below shows the average level of prison population above Certified Normal Accommodation (CNA) capacity in each of the prisons in the 10 Prisons Project in the last six months of 2017 and 2018.

Jul-Dec17

Jul-Dec18

Hull

302

281

Humber

102

62

Isis

142

143

Leeds

443

358

Lindholme

81

42

Moorland

57

16

Nottingham

257

186

Ranby

189

176

Wealstun

10

-3

Wormwood Scrubs

80

75

CNA, or uncrowded capacity, is the Prison Service’s own measure of accommodation. CNA represents the good, decent standard of accommodation that the Service aspires to provide all prisoners.

There are no prisons operating above their operational capacity in England and Wales. The operational capacity of a prison is the total number of prisoners that an establishment can hold taking into account control, security and the proper operation of the planned regime. It is determined by the Prison Group Director on the basis of operational judgement and experience.

In addition to a reduction in the national prison population, reductions in CNA have been seen across many prisons in England and Wales for a range of reasons, including

enabling maintenance to be performed and other operational reasons, such as part of the response to Urgent Notifications triggered by the Chief Inspector.

The 10 Prisons Project aims to reduce violence in ten of our most challenging prisons by reducing the supply of drugs; restoring basic decency and providing the training and support for prison officers to challenge the behaviour that drives violence. The project received an initial £10 million funding to improve security and decency, and bolster leadership capability over a 12-month period.

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