Justice Secretary Alex Norris said hundreds of urgently-needed places would be created by converting storerooms and offices.
The Justice Secretary has insisted prisons will “still function properly” amid concerns over Government plans to turn laundries into cells in a bid to tackle overcrowding.
Alex Norris said “hundreds of places” would be created by converting existing spaces inside prisons into accommodation.
He declined to confirm Tory claims that there are 700 fewer prison places than a year ago, noting that the estate “fluctuates” because of issues such as fire damage.
Mr Norris was touring broadcast studios on Tuesday morning ahead of announcing in Parliament that the Government will speed up the building of hundreds of extra prison places with £110 million of investment.
He will also set out to MPs details of an early release scheme designed to prevent prisons from running out of space.
Alongside the cash, which has been fast-tracked from existing budgets, the Government will transform existing areas, such as shared- use areas and offices, to house inmates.
Asked where clothes would be washed if laundry rooms were converted into cells, Mr Norris told BBC Breakfast: “Of course we’re going to make sure that the prisons can still function properly.
“This is a creative look, as I say, around our estate and being able to use some space that we can re-prioritise.”
He said wider plans – including building entire new prisons – would see 14,000 new places on top of the 3,200 prison places delivered in the last two years, “but that takes time”, while the conversion plans would add “in the hundreds of spaces”.
“In a system that’s running very hot, a few hundred places here and there makes a really big difference,” the Cabinet minister said.
Pressed on the Conservatives’ claim that there are 700 fewer prison places than in 2025, Mr Norris said the estate “fluctuates” because of planned and unplanned events affecting the Victorian-era buildings.
He told Times Radio: “Those wouldn’t necessarily be the numbers I’d use, but it is possible that places come out of the estate. For example, you know, there can be damage, fire damage. We’ve got a very old estate.”
Over the weekend, Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced that the killers of Thames Valley Police officer Andrew Harper will not be eligible for early release, following a backlash.
Mr Burnham initially resisted calls to limit the scheme further after it emerged that Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole, who were convicted of Pc Harper’s manslaughter in 2020, would be eligible from next year.
But under fresh changes announced on Sunday, anyone convicted of unlawful killing – including all forms of manslaughter and death by dangerous driving – will be excluded from the next round of early releases, which begins in October.
Some 5,000 prisoners had been due to be released early from October under plans to ease jail overcrowding, down from 6,000 after ministers intervened to exempt rapists and “serious” child sex offenders.
Mr Norris sought to reassure victims whose perpetrators are still due for early release by saying restrictions such as tagging and restriction zones will be designed around victims’ lives.
He told BBC Breakfast: “They will be written to. Letters start going out today.
“They will all be contacted individually by a victim liaison officer, who will then talk to them about, firstly, is their perpetrator coming out sooner than they expected? But secondly – and this is really crucial – that if their perpetrator is coming out sooner, or indeed when their perpetrator comes out in the future, what sort of controls do they want to see so they can live their life fully?”
Some offenders serving indefinite jail sentences, which were abolished in 2012, will be freed through legislation to be brought forward by the end of this Parliament, the Prime Minister also pledged.
Extra space in prisons is set to be created by releasing inmates who are serving indefinite sentences under imprisonment for public protection sentences (IPPs) and deporting foreign prisoners.
But the changes to IPPs could take years to implement, and will not be part of the initial measures to ease overcrowding.
Mark Fairhurst, the national chair of the Prison Officers’ Association, raised staff retention problems as he questioned where the extra workers would come from to staff the new prison places.
Thames Valley’s chief constable Jason Hogg warned on Monday that having to tag and monitor prisoners granted early release would be “difficult” for forces across the country.
He said: “The police haven’t received any additional funding for this additional work, so I’m going to be having to move resources away from one area of business to another to seek out, arrest, and bring before the court individuals who don’t follow the restrictions that they will be set.
“For example, their tagging restrictions. We don’t quite know what the demand will be on that, but I think it’ll be reasonably high, so it’s definitely more work for us.”
Shadow justice secretary Nick Timothy said: “It is absurd for Labour to talk about a ‘prison building boom’ when there are 700 fewer prison places than a year ago.”
Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey told LBC Radio: “They’re talking about turning laundries into prison cells in existing prisons.
“I’m not sure if that cuts it, to be honest … and there’s no new money.
“If they’re going to get serious, they’ve really got to tackle it with a little bit more vigour and verve than I’ve seen so far.”
