The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has cut almost £700m from its budget for building new prisons and renovating old ones to pay for extra staff and meet pay demands, it can be revealed.
The disclosure has led to claims that Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s promise to pump more than £2bn into tackling the prison overcrowding crisis is quietly being watered down as pressure on public finances mounts and departmental budgets are squeezed.
According to an MoJ document seen by The i Paper, £300m the department earmarked for “prison expansion programmes” is now being spent on day-to-day costs relating to employees and other pressures the prison estate faces.
An additional £395m has also been cut from the so-called “capital” spending budget chiefly dedicated to prison repairs has similarly been switched.
In December, Mahmood announced a ten-year strategy to ease prison overcrowding, including spending £2.3bn to build four new prisons, which will create 14,000 new prison places.
Dr Neil Shastri-Hurst, Conservative MP and Justice Select Committee member said quietly axing funding from investment in prisons raised questions about the Government’s strategy.
He added: “It is deeply concerning that hundreds of millions have been stripped from the Prison Expansion Programme at a time when our justice system is under immense strain. This reallocation of capital funding to plug gaps in day-to-day spending reflects not just short-term budgeting but a lack of long-term strategic thinking.
“Public safety and the integrity of our justice system depend on adequate prison capacity. The failure to prioritise this investment raises serious questions about the Government’s commitment to tackling crime and reducing reoffending.“
In July, Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood agreed to a five per cent pay rise for prison staff after accepting recommendations from the Independent Pay Review Body. The MoJ also faces additional costs, including paying an increased rate of employer national insurance.
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Cassia Rowland, senior researcher at the Institute for Government, said that while overall spending levels at the MoJ were higher than planned during the spending review, moving funds from capital-building projects into everyday spending would damage their prison plans.
She said: “Switching spending from capital to day-to-day spending is a long-standing problem, particularly in the MoJ, and unquestionably harms performance and productivity in public services. Prisons and courts are both in extremely poor states at the moment and desperately need investment in physical infrastructure.”
In March, The i Paper revealed the Government had cut up to £1.4bn in spending for modernising schools and hospitals to pay for pay deals with trade unions, with £575m being removed from school budgets.
Mahmood has previously claimed that the previous Conservative Government left a prison system “on the edge of collapse” due to overcrowding and, in September, released more than a thousand prisoners early to reduce the pressure on jails.
Last month, Mahmood, while opening a new prison in Yorkshire, said, “Public safety must never be put at risk again by the failure to have enough prison places.”
His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service have estimated that bringing the whole estate into fair condition would cost £2.8bn over the next five years, more than double its current maintenance expenditure.
Mick Primblett, deputy general secretary of The Prison Officers Association, said: “We have campaigned for years for a prisons budget that addresses the fundamental problems in the service – understaffing, overcrowding, pay, safety and the condition of the prison estate.
“What we need is a major investment in both capital and revenue budgets to create a service fit for the times we live in. Shuffling about money is no substitute for a genuine real terms increase in spending.”
An MoJ spokesperson said: “We are committed to delivering 14,000 new prison places by 2031. Following the opening of HMP Millsike this week, 2,400 places have now been delivered since July 2024.”
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