To ask the Secretary of State for Justice

(1) how much has been spent purchasing additional prison places from existing privately run prisons in each month since May 2010;

(2) from which companies additional spaces have been purchased in which prisons in each month since May 2010;

(3) how many spaces were agreed under each contract with a private provider for additional spaces in existing prisons signed since May 2010; how long each contract was for; and what the value was of the contract (a) in total and (b) per space agreed.

A significant amount of this information is not held centrally, and we would need to interrogate a very large volume of separate files to obtain the information required and then review and collate that information. By doing so we would incur disproportionate costs.