Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of trends in the number of prison cells between 2010 and 2022.

Monthly capacity reports from 2009 are publicly available at the following link: Prison population statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Over the past decade, prison capacity has been taken out of use both temporarily and on a longer-term basis for a number of reasons, including for essential maintenance and refurbishment.

We are delivering 20,000 additional, modern prison places, the biggest prison build programme in a century, ensuring the right conditions are in place to rehabilitate prisoners, helping to cut crime and protect the public. These places include the completed HMP Five Wells, the completion of our ongoing prison build HMP Fosse Way at Glen Parva, the construction of 4 new prisons, the expansion and refurbishment of the existing estate as well as temporary accommodation, of which we have already delivered around 3,100 additional prison places.