Autumn Budget 2024: Government to examine ‘tough alternatives to custody’ in prison reforms

The Chancellor has revealed a £2.3bn investment in prison expansion to create thousands of new places, as the government aims to “repair the justice system”.

In the breakdown of the Autumn Budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves allocated the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) a total of £13.8bn in funding for 2025-26.

The Treasury labeled prisons as one of its priority areas of reform under its phase two of its spending review which focuses on reforming the public sector.

The detailed Budget noted that the government will examine “tough alternatives to custody” to make sure sentences cut crime, while making the best use of taxpayers’ money.

The MoJ’s funding includes investment up to £2.3bn for prison expansion across 2024‑25 and 2025‑26.

In addition to £220m for prison and probation service maintenance in 2024‑25 and up to £300m in 2025‑26.

There will be “at least” an additional £500m investment across prisons and the probation system in 2025‑26 to recruit thousands of new prison and probation staff, and at least 1,000 new trainee probation officers by March 2025.

The Treasury said the funding will include 106,500 Crown Court sitting days in 2024‑25.

More prison places part of wider plan

“MoJ’s settlement will improve confidence by beginning to repair the criminal justice system,” the Treasury noted.

There is also an ongoing sentencing review which the government said it will complete, to “ensure there is never again a situation where there are more prisoners than prison places.”

In July, Labour pledged to ‘take back our streets’ in the King’s Speech, as it launched four Bills targeting reforms to the criminal justice system, including reducing delays in the criminal courts.

The Victims, Courts and Public Protection Bill includes measures such as reducing delays in the courts system by allowing associate prosecutors to work on appropriate cases. While rape cases will be fast-track to specialist courts at every Crown Court.

The government has also been releasing prisoners early as part of an emergency plan to ease overcrowding in jails in England and Wales.

The emergency plan was reactivated in August which would see a reduction in the proportion of certain custodial sentences served in prison from 50 per cent to 40 per cent.

As of September, around 1,700 prisoners were released early, as the scheme aims to free up 5,500 prison spaces.

However, sex offenders, and those serving sentences of four years or longer for serious violent offences are not eligible for early release.

The prisons are at breaking point. As of September 2024, the prison population in England and Wales was at another record high, with 88,521 inmates occupying 88,864 available spaces.

The MoJ’s figures as operational spending on justice was cut back in the Spring Budget 2024 to £10bn in 2024-25, from £10.5bn in 2023-24.