"This will keep our streets safe" - prison supremo hails decision over third Leyland jail as more new measures announced
The controversial decision to allow a third prison to be built on Green Belt near Leyland is the first piece of a new 10-year strategy to keep the streets safe, the Government has said.
Lord Chancellor Shabana Mahmood today announced that 14,000 new prison places, with a target to open by 2031, forms part of a new Prison Capacity Strategy to make sure we always have the spaces needed to keep the public safe.
Last week, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government gave the go ahead for a new prison next to HMP Garth, after three years and four months of wrangling in the planning system. This will allow for around 1,700 prison places to be built on the site.
In total, four new prisons will be built in the next seven years, opening up around 6,500 places to lock up dangerous criminals. There will also be 1,000 rapid deployment cells rolled out and over 1,000 existing cells will be refurbished. A sum of £2.3 billion will be invested to back the prison build, while a further £500 million will go towards vital building maintenance across prisons and the probation service.
Another part of the strategy is to deem prisons as places of national importance, preventing lengthy planning delays, and new land will be acquired for future prisons.
Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said: "The last government pretended they could send people away for longer and longer without building the prisons they promised. This strategy reveals that their prison building plans were years delayed and nearly £5bn over budget. They left our prisons in crisis, on the edge of collapse.
"Part of our plan for change, this capacity strategy, alongside an independent review of sentencing policy, will keep our streets safe and ensure no government runs out of prison places again."
To make sure this government, and future administrations, are always properly held to account on prison building and the long-term impact of changes to sentencing, from now on an Annual Statement on Prison Capacity will be published, providing clarity to Parliament and the public on the availability of prison places.
Today, the Lord Chancellor has published the first statement of its kind.
The 10-year Prison Capacity Strategy will work alongside the Independent Sentencing Review to ensure there is always space in prison and the country never runs out of prison spaces ever again.