Prisons: Overcrowding
(asked on 4th December 2023) - View Source
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many times a police cell was used as part of Operation Safeguard in 2023 by (a) region and (b) police force.
Operation safeguard is a planned contingency measure which was implemented in February 2023 and operated up until November 2023 in relation to the adult male estate. It is used to hold adult male prisoners in police custody suites temporarily as needed.
The tables below provide a breakdown of police cell usage as part of Operation Safeguard in 2023 by region and police force.
Region | Police force | Number of cells |
North East | Humberside | 80 |
North Yorkshire | 34 | |
South Yorkshire | 28 | |
West Yorkshire | 93 | |
Cleveland | 105 | |
Durham | 0 | |
Northumbria | 145 | |
Total | 485 | |
Region | Police force | Number of cells |
South West | Avon & Somerset | 1 |
Devon & Cornwall | 0 | |
Dorset | 0 | |
Gloucestershire | 5 | |
Wiltshire | 0 | |
Total | 6 | |
Region | Police force | Number of cells |
Eastern | Bedfordshire | 1 |
Cambridgeshire | 0 | |
Essex | 10 | |
Hertfordshire | 2 | |
Norfolk | 4 | |
Suffolk | 0 | |
Total | 17 | |
Region | Police force | Number of cells |
North West | Cheshire | 204 |
Cumbria | 26 | |
Greater Manchester | 372 | |
Lancashire` | 261 | |
Merseyside | 39 | |
North Wales | 21 | |
Total | 923 | |
Region | Police force | Number of cells |
South East | Hampshire & IOW | 0 |
Kent | 7 | |
Surrey | 24 | |
Sussex | 1 | |
Thames Valley | 26 | |
Total | 58 | |
Region | Police force | Number of cells |
East Midlands | Derbyshire | 4 |
Leicestershire | 3 | |
Lincolnshire | 0 | |
Northamptonshire | 2 | |
Nottinghamshire | 0 | |
Total | 9 | |
Region | Police force | Number of cells |
Central | Staffordshire | 29 |
Warwickshire | 0 | |
West Mercia | 0 | |
West Midlands | 22 | |
Total | 51 | |
Region | Police force | Number of cells |
London Met | London Met | 136 |
Total | 136 | |
Region | Police force | Number of cells |
Wales | Dfyed-Powys | 0 |
| Gwent | 0 |
| South Wales | 0 |
Total | 0 | |