To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department in how many prisons the population was in excess of the certified normal accommodation on the latest date for which figures are available.

As at 28 February 2005, 78 prisons were operating with a population above their in-use certified normal accommodation (CNA) level. This is the uncrowded capacity of the establishment. All prisons were operating within their useable operational capacity, which is the total number of prisoners that an establishment can hold taking into account control, security and the proper operation of the planned regime.

The Government have increased the number of prison places by around 17,000 since 1997 to the current useable operational capacity of 76,600. We plan to increase this by a further 3,800 to around 80,400 in 2007.