Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking to improve (a) working conditions and (b) infrastructure for prison officers.

We recognise that the serious problem of over-occupancy which we inherited has meant that conditions for those living and working in prisons are not those we would expect. We are determined to rectify this. The steps we are taking include action in response to the independent Sentencing Review and our prison building programme. Together, these measures are designed to balance demand for prison places with supply over the longer term.

Our 10-Year Prison Capacity Strategy makes a commitment to delivering an additional 14,000 prison places: we aim to do this by 2031. This involves the construction of four new prisons, including the recently delivered HMP Millsike, as well as the expansion and refurbishment of the existing estate and temporary accommodation.