§ Lord Hyltonasked Her Majesty's Government:
What plans they have for reducing overcrowding in the 82 prisons currently suffering from that problem. [HL425]
§ Baroness Scotland of AsthalWe are addressing population pressures by a range of measures. First, we are increasing capacity in the prisons estate. A number of projects are underway including building around 2,400 additional public sector prison places at existing prisons by 2006. A new private sector prison, HMP Peterborough is due to open in March 2005. Following the spending review, funding has now been announced for the start of a new building programme commencing in 2005–06 to create an additional 1,300 prison places.
As well as expanding prison capacity, we are looking to provide more effective options for sentencers to ensure that prison is reserved for dangerous and persistent offenders. We will also ensure that better targeted, more effective and demanding community penalities and properly enforced fines are available for other serious offenders. The Criminal Justice Act 2003 supports this approach by providing for community orders and improved frameworks for suspended and short sentences via custody plus and custody minus and through intermittent custody.
Finally, we are, with the Sentencing Guidelines Council, working with sentencers to address regional variations in sentencing as well as seeking to ensure that sentences are targeted effectively.