A countrywide prison building programme is speeding up, with almost 5,000 new places that are now under construction throughout the Northwest, Southwest, and Southeast, as well as the East of England.
The works go on to form a part of the largest expansion when it comes to the estate in over a century and look to safeguard capacity as well as the public safety as per the government’s Plan for Change.
This latest milestone has gone on to see a new 245-place houseblock at the HMP Fosse Way located in the East Midlands, which opened to prisoners recently, thereby contributing to the 2,900 places that have already been delivered ever since July 2024 towards a target of 14,000 more places by 2031.
The UK prison construction activity is all set to roll out thousands of jobs during the build phases and also once the facilities go on to become operational. The government is going ahead and investing £4.7 billion across the UK prison construction projects in the present spending review period of 2026/27 to 2029/30, hence offering quite a significant pipeline for contractors along with the wider supply chain.
As part of the Countrywide Prison Building Programme Work is progressing when it comes to new houseblocks at HMP Channings Wood in Devon, HMP Highpoint located in Suffolk, and HMP Wayland in Thetford, which all together are going to add 1,400 places. Expansion is also taking place at six more prisons by way of the Small Secure Houseblocks programme, thereby delivering more than 1,000 places in total. In Leicestershire, main works have started on the new HMP Welland Oaks, which is a circa-1,700-place facility that is due to open in 2029.
It is worth noting that modern methods of construction are central to the programme. Rapid Deployment Cells, which are the modular units that are designed to add capacity at pace, are getting rolled out at HMPs Wayland as well as Haverigg, The Mount, and Leyhill, with places anticipated to come online by summer 2026. Since January 2023, almost 930 places have been delivered through these units across the 18 sites.
Lord James Timpson, the Minister for Prisons, Probation, and Reducing Reoffending, said that this government inherited a prison system in crisis and they are indeed doing everything in their capacity to fix it. He added that they have already delivered 2,900 new places over the last 18 months, with thousands more that are on the way. As part of their Plan for Change, they are making sure that dangerous offenders are put behind bars and their streets are safer with no excuses and just action.
Apparently, the Ministry of Justice notes the prison estate grew by less than 500 net places in 14 years leading to April 2024. The present uplift goes on to combine certain new-build prisons, expansion as well as refurbishment of the present sites, and also offsite-manufactured rapid cells in order to increase the capacity rapidly.
Jake Richards, the Minister for Sentencing and Youth Justice, said that they have gone on to waste no time so as to build the prison places that are required to protect the public, hence creating thousands of jobs all the way. However, according to him, building alone is not going to end the crisis. That is why they are also reforming the sentencing in order to make sure that the punishment cuts crime and that there is indeed always a cell for those dangerous criminals.
The government, alongside the build programme has also accepted the majority of recommendations coming from the independent review into prison capacity from Dame Anne Owers. This includes almost £700 million more for probation services by 2028/29 in order to expand tagging as well as tracking for tens of thousands more offenders, therefore easing the pressure on the estate.
Since July 2024, almost 2,900 places have been delivered, which includes almost 1,500 at the new prison HMP Millsike. Over 2,000 places are anticipated through the Accelerated Houseblocks Delivery Programme, hence complementing more than 1,000 through Small Secure Houseblocks since the expansion keeps progressing.