The government's own watchdog warned three years ago that Britain's prisons would run out of space by 2023 as it accused the Treasury of failing to provide the vital cash needed to tackle the issue.
The National Audit Office raised the alarm in a report published in February 2020 – while Rishi Sunak was chancellor – saying that without intervention demand for prison places was on course to exceed supply sometime between October 2022 and June 2023.
