What was claimed
Between 2010 and 2024 just 500 prison places were added.
Our verdict
This figure refers to the net increase in prison places between May 2010 and April 2024.
How many prison places did the Conservatives create?
What was claimed
The Conservatives created 14,000 new prison places.
Our verdict
This figure appears to refer to the number of newly created prison places while the Conservatives were in government, but it doesn’t account for the 13,000 reduction in prison places through closures and other reasons over the same period.
“Britain’s prisons crisis has its roots in a failure to add sufficient new places between 2010 and 2024. Just 500 places were added and 23 prisons were closed.”
“When we were in Government, we saw the challenge. We created 14,000 new prison places, it was nowhere near enough.”
You may have seen these seemingly contradictory claims being made by the Prime Minister Andy Burnham and Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch amid debate surrounding plans to make thousands of prisoners eligible for earlier release in October.
Mr Burnham appears to have been referencing figures published in an ad-hoc release by the Ministry of Justice in October 2024.
These figures showed that the net increase in prison places in England and Wales between May 2010 and April 2024—the month the Conservatives entered government and the last full month before the 2024 general election was called—was 482.
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The 14,000 figure Ms Badenoch used also matches figures in the same ad-hoc release, which showed that a total of 14,142 new prison places were created over the same period. We’ve asked the Conservatives if this is what she was referring to.
The 482 figure represents these newly created prison places, minus 11,651 prison places that were closed over the same period due to either prison closures or cell dilapidation, and a 2,009 decrease in capacity for other reasons.