House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

Open Prisons: Policy on Convicted Paedophiles

Tuesday 19 May 2026 · 3 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Key points

Prisoners are moved to open prisons after passing a thorough risk assessment.
The Minister offered to look into a specific case where a constituent's abuser was moved to an open prison.
The Government is committed to building 13,000 new prison places by 2031.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 Alicia Kearns Con Rutland and Stamford

Justice & Courts

Question

Whether his Department has a policy on the housing of convicted paedophiles in open prisons.

Answer from Jake Richards

Prisoners are moved to an open prison as part of the rehabilitation process, but only after they pass a thorough risk assessment. Every prisoner, including those serving a sentence for a sexual offence, is subject to an individual risk assessment. They will not be allowed to move to an open prison unless they are assessed as presenting a low enough risk. A prisoner can be immediately returned from an open prison to closed conditions if their risk increases.

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Q2 Alicia Kearns Con Rutland and Stamford

Crime & Law Enforcement

Question

Paedophiles should be behind bars, not roaming our communities. I am afraid that the Minister’s words will ring hollow for my constituent who received a call in January and was told that her abuser, the paedophile, who was only two years into a nine-year sentence, had been moved into an open prison, and now had the right to leave the site freely, and even stay out overnight. Will the Government review these moves? Clearly something is not working. Will the Minister also specifically look into this case, which is utterly unacceptable?

Answer from Jake Richards

As I said, each case is considered on its own circumstances, and the risk is assessed by the professionals. I am very happy to look into that case and make sure that the appropriate officials look into it too.

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Q3 Ben Obese-Jecty Con Huntingdon

Justice & Courts

Question

As an MP whose constituency has a category C prison for male sex offenders that is almost at capacity—HMP Littlehey—I welcome the clarity from the Minister regarding paedophiles in the prison estate.<br/>We know that the Minister is on the hook to deliver thousands of new category C and D prison places. I want to ask him about the prison places he has made almost no progress on since the election because the contractor ISG went into administration in September 2024. I first highlighted the failure of that project last year. Can he confirm whether, since then, all those 12 prisons have had new contractors appointed? When will those prison places be delivered?

Answer from Jake Richards

This Government are undertaking the biggest prison building programme since the Victorian era. We will be building 13,000 new places by 2031. We inherited a prison capacity crisis from the Conservatives, so it takes some chutzpah for them to start asking questions about prison building. We are committed to the prison building programme that we announced in 2024, and we are confident that we will match it. We are fixing the mess that they created.