Opposition Day — Prisons — Reduce Overcrowding and Improve Safety — 25 Jan 2017 at 15:49

The majority of MPs voted against calling on the Government to reduce overcrowding and improve safety while still ensuring that those people who should be in prison are in prison.

The motion rejected by the majority of MPs in this vote was:

• That this House
• notes with concern recent serious disturbances at Swaleside, Birmingham, Lewes, Bedford and Moorlands prisons against the backdrop of a reduction of more than 6,000 frontline prison officers since 2010;
• notes that a planned recruitment drive has a target of hiring fewer than half the number of officers lost, and that previous recruitment drives have failed to achieve their targets;
• recognises that violence in prisons is at record levels with assaults up by 34 per cent since 2015, assaults on staff up by 43 per cent since 2015, and more than 60 per cent of prisons currently overcrowded; and
• calls on the Government to reduce overcrowding and improve safety while still ensuring that those people who should be in prison are in prison.

Debate in Parliament |