Prisons: Overcrowding
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department has assessed the potential impact of prison overcrowding on staff safety.
Answered by Jake Richards
Ministry of Justice research on crowding and violence in the adult closed estate in 2022 shows that prisoners in overcrowded cells are 19% more likely to be involved in an assault over a one-year period than those in cells that are not overcrowded.
The details of this report can be found here: The impact of overcrowding on assaults in closed adult public prisons - GOV.UK
As set out in the December 2024 10-Year Prison Capacity Strategy, we have committed to delivering an additional 14,000 prison places and aim to do so by 2031. We are investing £4.7 billion over the spending review period (2026/27 to 2029/30) towards the delivery of these additional prison places, and we have already delivered c.3,100 since taking office. Alongside increasing capacity at record rates, our Sentencing Act 2026 will place the prison population on a more sustainable footing and pave the way for further reforms.
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