Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answers of 9 April 2025 to Questions 43036 on Prison Accommodation: Closures and 43032 and 43033 on Prison Accommodation, what the gross addition to prison estate capacity was from (a) new-build prisons, (b) extensions, (c) rapid deployment cells and (d) other additions without netting off the removal of places in each year for which data is available.

The previous Labour Government added nearly 28,000 places to the prison estate between 1997 and 2010. However, available records do not provide a breakdown for these figures of these places by category.

For the gross additions to prison estate capacity relating to (a) new-build prisons and (b) extensions, I refer you to the table provided in response to PQs 36624 & 36626. For gross additions relating to (c) rapid deployment cells, I refer you to the table provided in PQ 36625. The information requested for part (d) is not available in a format showing gross additions only. This is because this category contains significant turnover of prison places coming in and out of use for temporary reductions, such as maintenance projects, and it is not possible to distinguish the gross additional capacity added over this period.

Last year this Government announced plans to build 14,000 places by 2031 as part of our 10-year Prison Capacity Strategy. We have already started the 700-place expansion at HMP Highpoint in Suffolk in March, and a new houseblock providing nearly 460 places at HMP Rye Hill in Northamptonshire recently received its first prisoners. This week has also seen the opening HMP Millsike, which will hold nearly 1,500 prisoners.