Prison Accommodation: Wales
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the answer of 17th November 2025, to question 88464 on Prison Accommodation, how many a) places at new prisons, b) permanent cells at existing prisons and c) Rapid Deployment Cells will form the 350 places in Wales.
Answered by Jake Richards
As set out in the 10-Year Prison Capacity Strategy, published in December 2024, we are delivering an additional 14,000 prison places, and aim to do so by 2031, having already delivered c.2,600 since taking office. The following table provides a breakdown of the places to be delivered in each region by new prison places, permanent cells at existing prisons and rapid deployment cells (RDCs), with each number rounded to the nearest 50 places. Due to rounding, total places may not align to the other categories.
Region | Total Places | New Prison Places | Permanent Cells | RDCs |
South West & Central | c.3,250 | c.1,450 | c.1,600 | c.200 |
South East & East | c.2,400 | 0 | c.2,100 | c.250 |
Wales | c.350 | 0 | c.250 | c.100 |
Midlands | c.2,750 | c.2,000 | c.700 | c.50 |
North West | c.2,900 | c.1,700 | c.1,100 | c.100 |
North East | c.650 | 0 | c.400 | c.200 |
This breakdown represents current projections which may vary when compared to previous projections due to changes in programme scope or our delivery approach, as well as the inclusion in the original response of temporary additional places used in private prisons (which are not covered in the questions above).
Due to rounding, and contingency within the programmes, our delivery total exceeds the 14,000 place commitment.
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