UK Housing Secretary may strip English councils of planning powers for prisons

The UK Justice Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has indicated that the UK Housing Secretary will be given the power to bypass local authorities and approve the building of new prisons in England.

Prisons are devolved in Scotland and Northern Ireland, meaning the UK Justice Secretary only has jurisdiction over England and Welsh prisons. Wales has no prisons for women or Category A prisoners so all female and serious offenders are sent to English prisons.

The UK Home Office has a capacity problem in English and Welsh prisons but is unable to build new prisons in Wales without the agreement of Welsh local authorities and the Welsh government so it intends to solve its overcrowding problem in Welsh prisons by building more prisons in England and taking away English local authority planning powers.

What I would say to your viewers is of more concern is when the nation runs out of prison places. You know, you have to pull emergency levers, as I had to when I first came into office, to make sure that there’s enough space in our prisons.
_{Shamana Mahmood}

Without an English Parliament the British government will continue to use England to solve all its problems.