Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Prison population projections: 2021 to 2026, published on 25 November 2021, Table 3.1, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the increase in projected remand populations relative to those projected in the publication Prison Population Projections: 2020 to 2026, published on 26 November 2020.

The 2021 remand population projection has changed compared to the 2020 remand population projection due to the further lockdowns that occurred post 2020 publication and the resulting slower than anticipated court recovery.

The 2021 remand projection modelling methodology has been improved since the previous publication. The court recovery assumptions in the modelling have also been updated.

The 2021 remand population projection modelling does not include any additional policy changes compared to the 2020 publication.

This Government committed to building as many prison places as we need to meet demand. We are undertaking the largest prison building programme in a century. We are investing £3.5 billion over the next three years to deliver 18,000 additional, modern prison places and £250 million to deliver a further 2,000 temporary prison places across England and Wales by the mid-2020s. This will help to manage the increasing demand.