Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether her Department plans to release inmates who have served a third of their sentence in order to tackle overcrowding.

This Government was left an unconscionable inheritance with the prison system days from collapse. To prevent the risk of gridlock across the Criminal Justice System, we have had no choice but to take decisive action to stop our prisons overflowing and keep the public safe.

The previous Government added less than 500 net places, whilst the previous Labour Government added net 28,000. As set out in the December 2024 10-Year Prison Capacity Strategy, we are committed to delivering an additional 14,000 prison places and aim to do so by 2031; we have already delivered c.2500 of these since taking office. Our build programme consists of the construction of four new prisons, including the recently delivered HMP Millsike, as well as the expansion and refurbishment of the existing estate. The Lord Chancellor announced in her speech of 14 May a further investment of £4.7 billion over the spending review period to deliver these places, including breaking ground at a new prison site near HMP Gartree later this year. We are also committed to undertaking critical maintenance work, and acquiring more land should further prisons be required.

On 22 May, the Lord Chancellor set out the Government’s in-principle response to the Independent Sentencing Review’s findings and recommendations, which will ensure prisons never run out of space again and dangerous offenders can be kept off the streets. One key change announced will be a new ‘earned progression model’ that will see prisoners earn their way to release through good behaviour or face longer in jail. Under this model, an offender will not necessarily leave prison at an automatic point. Instead, their release date will be determined by their behaviour. If they follow prison rules, they will earn earlier release. If they do not, they can be locked up for longer.