London (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Government plans to expand prison capacity by 20,000 spaces face a five-year delay and £4.2bn cost overrun, with a projected shortage of 12,400 spaces by 2027, a National Audit Office report reveals.
According to a damning report from Whitehall’s spending watchdog, Boris Johnson’s 20,000 new prison places plan is five years behind schedule and costs billions more than expected.
The National Audit Office warns prison expansion plans are “insufficient to meet future demand,” predicting a 12,400-place shortfall by 2027 and costs exceeding initial estimates by £4bn.
The report reveals that England’s prisons face an overcrowding crisis, with just 6,518 of the 20,000 promised places delivered by mid-2020.
A Wednesday report by NAO blames the prison overcrowding crisis on the previous Conservative government’s failure to ensure prison capacity kept place with longer jail terms and police expansion with sufficient prison space.
The report said, “It is the result of previous governments’ failure to ensure that the number of prison places was aligned with criminal justice policies.”
The watchdog report reveals that the government’s 2021 promise to deliver new prison spaces, including new facilities and refurbished cells, will not be fulfilled until 2031, five years later than the 2026 target.
As reported by The National, NAO reported that only a third (6,518) of the promised 20,000 new prison places had been created by HM Prison & Probation Service (HMPPS).
The delays are due to “unrealistic timelines” and the overestimation in securing planning permission for three out of the six new prisons that are set to be built.
The findings labelled as “unacceptable” by the Tory chair of parliament’s spending watchdog, come weeks after Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood decided to implement an early release scheme that freed 5,500 prison spaces in England and Wales.
Campaigners have condemned the report as “damning” and criticized the escalating costs as “eye-watering.”
The National Audit Office’s report highlighted that prison capacity is expected to fall behind demand, with a projected shortage of 12,400 places by 2027. The MoJ hopes the current sentencing review will reduce demand and close the gap.
Auditors revealed in the report that between 2020 and 2021, the Ministry of Justice revised its prison expansion plans from 13,400 to 20,000 additional spaces by mid-2020.
The MoJ and HMPPS have revised the cost of prison expansion plans to between £9.4bn and £10.1bn, exceeding the previous 2021 estimates by at least £4.2bn.
The Guardian reports that the National Audit Office warned that the current prison crisis will not provide value for money unless the government aligns its policies with appropriate funding for the prison system.
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, chair of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, which scrutinises government spending, said the delay and extra costs were “unacceptable.”
He added, “The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has been in firefighting mode, prioritising short-term solutions to the crisis. These are not only expensive but also increase risks to prisoner, staff and public safety.”
Andrea Coomber, the chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform stated, “This scathing report underlines a fact that the new government has recognised – we cannot build our way out of the prison capacity crisis. Finding a solution is not simply a matter of supply; we have to reduce demand.”
The prison population in England and Wales was reduced by 3% in October, reaching 85,900, after 3,100 prisoners were released early to address urgent capacity concerns.
Pia Sinha, chief executive of the Prison Reform Trust, branded the findings as “damning” and said they laid bare the “negligence of previous governments and their approach to penal policy.”
While responding to the report, James Timpson, the minister for prisons stated, “This report lays bare the litany of failures which brought our prison system to the brink. This not only risked public safety but added billions in extra costs to taxpayers.”
The director of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, Richard Garside, criticized governments and parliament for being “joint architects of a decade-in-the-making prisons crisis.”