David Burrowes MP

Conservative Party | Enfield Southgate

Burrowes Questions Prisoner’s ‘Ritz’-style Treatment

The Government should provide more prison places rather than spending the equivalent of a night's stay in the Ritz Hotel on housing prisoners in police cells, Tory MP said today.

Shadow justice minister and Enfield Southgate MP David Burrowes said the money could have provided 400 new prison places.

Justice Secretary Jack Straw said the costs of police cells were "too high" but the Government was using them less than the previous Tory government.

Mr Straw said in 2007/08 the cost of holding prisoners in police cells was GBP68 million and on average 181 prisoners were held in police cells every night.

At question time Mr Burrowes said "yet another weekend had gone by" where prisoners were locked out of prisons and "transported across the country" to police and court cells and "then back to court on Monday."

He added: "Surely rather than spending the equivalent of a night in...the equivalent of the Ritz...a better use of taxpayers' money would be to have spent over GBP35 million on providing 400 new prison places?"

Mr Straw replied: "We have provided additional prison places at twice the rate of the previous administration. None of us believe that the use of police cells or court cells is acceptable. We want to get out of them as quickly as possible."

He said under the Tories an average of 1,100 prisoners a night were in police cells in 1991/92.

Mr Straw also commented: "I agree with you the costs are too high. It is very much not second best but third best to have to use police cells. We use them a great deal less than the administration that you supported."

He added: "You are correct to talk about hotel accommodation, the only thing is one can freely leave hotel accommodation."

The discussion comes after the release of the Conservative Party Prisons review which suggests many innovative ways of addressing the current prisons crisis.