The Ministry of Justice has received £7bn in the Spending Review to build 14,000 new prison places.
The SR25 Phase 2 funding dates back to 2024-25 and runs up to 2029-30 to deliver the 14,000 new places by 2031.
HM Probation Service will meanwhile receive up to £700m in additional funding per year by 2028‑29, compared with 2025-26, to deliver the recommendations of the Independent Sentencing Review.
The extra prisons funding comes soon after a union representing probation and family court staff called for "bold investment decisions" to solve the prison overcrowding crisis. Ian Lawrence, general secretary of Napo, said the review of sentencing policy announced last year, led by former justice secretary David Gauke, "may come to little effect" without a large injection of funding.
The Red Book, which sets out the details of the Phase 2 funding settlements, says: “In summer 2024, prisons were operating at over 99% capacity, and emergency measures were required to prevent capacity breaching. Through the Phase 2 settlement, MoJ will expand prison, probation and courts capacity to record levels alongside long-term reform to deliver a sustainable and effective justice system.”
It notes that only 500 additional prison places were created between 2010 and 2024.
The Red Book says that with the cash for prisons and probation, the government is “providing the funding necessary to deliver transformative reforms to sentencing, based on the recommendations set out in the recent Sentencing Review”.
The final report of the sentencing review, published last month, called for increased investment in the Probation Service to support “capacity and resilience”.
It noted that the government’s stated goal of locking up fewer criminals will “place a greater burden on a probation system that is already under great strain”.
The Red Book reiterates this goal, stating: “The government will make greater use of punishment outside of prison and encourage offenders to turn their backs on a life of crime.”
Earlier this month, the MoJ revealed it was setting up a new probation and reoffending directorate to bring policy work on the two areas closer together and respond to growing demand for the two services.
Extra funding to reduce crown court backlog
The MoJ’s Phase 2 settlement also announced an increase in funding for the courts system, which will rise by “up to” an additional £450m a year by 2028‑29, compared to this year’s funding.
The money will be used to increase crown court sitting days “to record levels” and help to implement the recommendations from the ongoing Independent Review of Criminal Courts, according to the Red Book.
The courts review, which was commissioned in December and will report in the autumn, aims to identify longer-term options for criminal court reform to reduce demand on the Crown Court by retaining more cases in the lower courts. It will also look at ways to improve the efficiency and timeliness of processes through charge to conviction or acquittal.
In March, the Public Accounts Committee used a damning report to say the MoJ was failing to take the urgent action it needed to reduce the crown courts backlog, which stood at an unprecedented 73,105 open cases in September – 10% more than the previous year.
The government had agreed with its statement that "justice delayed is justice denied", according to the MPs, who said the MoJ's intention to wait for the outcome of the crown court review "will delay reforms by many months".
“This will help tackle court backlogs and improve court productivity. There will be increased capacity every year to process asylum appeals, to help reduce illegal and irregular migration and bear down on asylum costs,” the Red Book says.