Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has had discussions with his Northern Irish counterpart on increasing capacity in the prison estate.

The Secretary of State for Justice has not yet had discussions with his Northern Irish counterpart on increasing capacity in the prison estate.

However, the UK Government is in regular dialogue with the Northern Ireland Executive on prison capacity challenges at ministerial level through the Inter-Ministerial Group for Justice, and at official level through the Five Nations Forum on Prison Capacity, as well as bilaterally. Lord Timpson will shortly be visiting Northern Ireland to meet the Northern Ireland Justice Minister, where they will discuss a range of justice related issues, including prison capacity.

The UK Government has already taken action to progress towards a sustainable solution to the prison capacity crisis in England and Wales. On 22 May, David Gauke’s Sentencing Review was published, and on 2 September we introduced legislation to take forward most of the recommendations made by the review. Our landmark sentencing reforms will ensure we never run out of prison places again.

To ensure we have sufficient capacity in the lead up to implementation of the Sentencing Bill, the previous Lord Chancellor also announced further measures to manage the prison population, such as extending the Home Detention Curfew, and expanding the Early Removal Scheme, enabling the earlier removal of foreign national offenders.