To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what progress his Department has made towards its objective of increasing the prison capacity in England and Wales to 86,000 by September 2009. (252343)

We estimate that prison capacity in England and Wales will reach 86,000 places around November 2009.

We are expanding prison capacity by 20,000 places and aim to achieve an overall net capacity of just over 96,000 by 2014.