Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the average food budget per prisoner per day in prisons in England and Wales for each of the last five years for which figures are available.

The National Offender Management Service (NOMS), on behalf of the MoJ Department, is responsible for allocating food budgets to all adult public sector prisons across England and Wales. There are separate budget arrangements in place for prisons within the Young Peoples Estate and the private sector. The table below shows the allocated food budget for financial years 2012-13 to 2015-16:

For 2016-17, non-pay budgets, including an element for prisoner food, were based on a standard unit cost by prison type, in place of the previous set of standardised budgets. This gave Governors more freedom in allocating non-pay budgets, with the £2.02 figure for prisoner food retained as a guide.