Government spending on prisons in the UK 2009-2024

The United Kingdom spent approximately 6.85 billion British pounds on its prison system in 2023/24, an increase when compared to the previous year. Between 2011/12 and 2019/20 the UK consistently spent less than it did in 2009/10 and 2010/11, mainly due to the austerity policies pursued by the coalition Government of the time. Throughout this time period, expenditure on prisons was lowest in 2014/15 at 393 billion pounds, and highest in the most recent financial year. 

Prisoners and prison costs

The prisoner population of the United Kingdom was around 92,803 in 2023. Although this was quite a high figure in historical terms, the incarceration rate among the UK's three jurisdictions has fallen slightly since 2008. Nevertheless, there is evidence the government is struggling to cope with the size of the prison population. The number of spare prison places in England and Wales fell to a low of just 768 in September 2023. The average cost of a prison place has also increased recently. In 2015/16, a prison place cost approximately 35,182 pounds per year, reaching 48,162 in 2020/21, before falling slightly to 46,696 pounds in 2021/22. 

Steep rise in prison violence in the mid-2010s

In 2018, there were over 34,000 assaults among prisoners, and a further 10,200 assaults on prison staff in England and Wales. This was far higher than in the years preceding 2018, and correlated with a reduction in prison officers. In 2017, there were just 18,400 prison officers working in England and Wales, compared with almost 25,000 in 2010. Since 2017, however, the number of prisons officers has increased, and in 2023 there were approximately 22,300. It is unclear if this increase in prison officers has succeeded in reducing prisoner violence, with the number of incidents recently rising again following a huge reduction of incidents during the COVID-19 pandemic.