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<p>In prisons where we have crowding in place, a rigorous cell certification process
is undertaken that ensures the use of cells is subject to formal assessment of safety
and decency.</p><p>We continue to pursue the package of longer-term measures the Lord
Chancellor announced on 16 October 2023 to reform the justice system and continue
to address the prison capacity challenges. The measures include: the extension of
the Early Removal Scheme, introducing a presumption to suspend sentences of 12 months
or less, curtailing the licence period for IPP sentences and extending the use of
Home Detention Curfew. On 11 March, the Lord Chancellor announced the next steps in
our plan, to allow us to go further and faster in removing foreign national offenders
(FNOs). This includes expediting prisoner transfers with our priority partners such
as Albania, and the creation of a new taskforce across the Home Office and Ministry
of Justice to change the way we process FNO cases radically.</p><p>To meet pressing
demand, we are building c.20,000 modern, rehabilitative prison places – the biggest
prison build programme since the Victorian era. We have already delivered c.5,900
of these, including through our two new 1,700 places prisons, HMP Five Wells and HMP
Fosse Way, and c.590 Rapid Deployment Cells across 11 sites. By the end of 2025, we
are on track to have delivered around 10,000 places in total.</p><p>The Government
will continue to monitor the evolving situation with demand for prison places carefully,
so that we can make sure we have the right approaches in place to maintain the capacity
required for a safe and effective criminal justice system.</p>
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