§ Miss WiddecombeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what emergency accommodation he plans to use to ease prison overcrowding; [82132]
(2) when the next batch of new prison places will become available; and how many there will be; [82134]
(3) if he will make a statement on the use of police cells to house those (a) sentenced and (b) remanded in custody by the courts; [82136]
(4) what plans he has for the expansion of places in Her Majesty's prisons; [82137]
(5) what the total (a) operational capacity, (b) prison population and (c) certified accommodation capacity in prisons is. [82138]
§ Hilary Benn[holding answer 2 December 2002]: As at 27 November 2002, the useable operational capacity of the Prison Service was 72,684; the total prison population was 72,500 (excluding 160 prisoners held in police cells) and the in use certified normal accommodation was 64,608.
Following the unexpected rise in the prison population, the Prison Service is using police cells for keeping both remand and sentenced prisoners in safe custody. The number of police cells used in this way (under Operation Safeguard) peaked at 448 on the night of 29 October 2002. Since then, new accommodation has been brought into operation, which has enabled the Prison Service to reduce its use of police cells.
By 27 November 2002, the number of prisoners being held in police cells had fallen to 160.
By providing additional capacity, along with sentencing reform and other measures to contain the rise in the prison population, the Government aim to limit prison overcrowding to manageable levels agreed with the Prison Service.
We have recently announced that £60 million will be made available to provide 740 places at existing prisons by March 2004. This is in addition to funding from the 2002 budget to provide an extra 2,320 places this year.
We have also approved Prison Service plans for two new prisons, which will provide 1,290 places by 2004–05. The first is scheduled to open in the summer of 2004 at Ashford (near Heathrow) and will be a female prison of 450 places. An 840-place prison for 360 female and 480 male prisoners is scheduled to open at Peterborough in Cambridgeshire in the summer of 2005.