Prisons are forecast to run out of space again in early 2026 as years of government efforts have failed to create the extra capacity needed, MPs have warned.
false,Friday 14 March 2025 07:05, UK
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GDP fell by 0.1% in January, the latest data from the Office for National Statistics shows.
The fall was mainly driven by a decline in the production sector, with output dropping 0.9%.
It’s worse than economists had expected, with many predicting GDP to rise by 0.1% in January.
Bridget Phillipson will today call on headteachers to “catch up fast” to improve pupil attendance.
The education secretary is expected to accuse some schools of “not making enough progress” on absences – as she calls for “old-fashioned graft”.
Some 3.6 million children missed 10 days or more of school last year and 1.6 million – more than one in 10 – missed a day every fortnight, according to the Department for Education.
Children in Year 11 who miss 10 days of school are half as likely to achieve a grade five in English and maths, research from the department shows.
Phillipson will highlight variations in attendance across the country in an address to around 1,000 school and college leaders at the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) annual conference in Liverpool.
She is expected to say that one in five children is persistently absent and that while some schools are “doing really well”, others are “not making enough progress”.
“And I won’t accept the damage that does to those children,” the minister will say. “I expect schools to catch up – fast.
“And I know that’s what schools want too, what you are all working so hard to do.
“The way we turn this around is through collaboration, partnership and, if we’re honest, old-fashioned graft.”
Prisons are forecast to run out of space again in early 2026 as years of government efforts have failed to create the extra capacity needed, MPs have warned.
Plans from 2021 to create 20,000 more prison places by the mid 2020s were “completely unrealistic” and thousands of outstanding spaces are expected to be delivered five years late for £4.2bn – 80% – more than planned.
The Public Accounts Committee report published on Friday found a “system in crisis” that faces “total gridlock” next year despite thousands of prisoners being released early to tackle overcrowding.
MPs also said the HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) remains operating “hand to mouth”, reacting to immediate crises like it found in 2020, and that the service acknowledges it as “detrimental” for rehabilitation efforts to cut reoffending.
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, chairman of the committee, said: “Lives are being put at increasing risk by the government’s historic failures to increase capacity.
“Despite the recent emergency release of thousands of prisoners, the system still faces total gridlock in a matter of months.”
The report detailed that the adult male prison estate was at between 98% and 99.7% occupancy between October 2022 and August 2024, and remains “alarmingly full”.
It found a quarter of prisoners are doubled up in cells meant for one person and that overcrowding is linked to higher rates of violence and self-harm which “increased significantly” in the year to September 2024.
By Beth Rigby, political editor, and Paul Twinn, executive political producer
Reform UK’s most senior woman has told Sky News the Rupert Lowe row “doesn’t look great” and she doesn’t “want to see it in the news any more days”.
Dame Andrea Jenkyns, who defected to Reform last year, accepted it was “clearly a big falling out” but suggested these spats do not always cut through to the public.
She insisted she was concentrating on winning as she looks to become the party’s first ever mayor in May.
In an interview with Sky News, Dame Andrea also spoke for the first time about her experience of domestic abuse, denying Reform has a “woman problem” but accepted “we need to start talking more about issues, what women are interested in”.
Having lost her seat as a Conservative in the 2024 election, Dame Andrea briefly quit politics only to return earlier this year as Reform’s newest recruit.
She is now standing as the party’s candidate to become the first Greater Lincolnshire mayor, in a race that psephologists think could be Reform’s best hope of turning itself from a party of protest into one that is governing.
That’s because Reform is on the march in Lincolnshire, which is a key battleground between the Conservatives and Reform in the local and mayoral elections in May.
Good morning!
Welcome back to the Politics Hub on Friday, 14 March.
Reaction will likely continue today after Sir Keir Starmer’s bombshell decision to scrap NHS England – the administrative body behind the National Health Service – yesterday.
The shutdown is expected to take around two years, with Health Secretary Wes Streeting yesterday confirming he expects the loss of 9,000 jobs.
Today, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson is due to deliver a speech in Liverpool, where she is expected to tell headteachers to “catch up fast” on pupil attendance.
Phillipson will say some schools are “not making enough progress” on absences as she calls for “old-fashioned graft”.
Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary David Lammy is attending a meeting of the Group of Seven (G7) in Quebec, Canada, which concludes today.
And a group of MPs have warned that prisons could run out of space again in early 2026 as years of government efforts have failed to create the extra capacity needed.
We’ll be discussing all of that and more with…
Health minister Karin Smyth at 7.15am
Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick at 8.15am.
Follow along for the very latest political news.
That’s it for tonight.
Join us again in the morning for more politics in the Politics Hub.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy is currently in Canada for a meeting of the G7.
He has spoken to the Daily Mirror about his views on the proposed peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.
Lammy says allowing Putin to put any terms on an agreement would be “wrong”.
The foreign secretary said: “We have an opportunity for a just and lasting peace in Ukraine.
“The UK is stepping up to the mark and we’re united with international partners. I am with the G7 in Canada this week, and the prime minister is convening international leaders on Saturday.
“The US and Ukraine have called for a full, immediate and unconditional 30-day ceasefire. This would be a first step so that talks can start on a full settlement that protects Ukraine’s security and sovereignty.
“President Zelenskyy has shown that Ukraine is the party of peace.
“It would be wrong for Putin to lay conditions. Our support for Ukraine, and that of other partners, remains ironclad.”
Reform UK has consolidated its gains at the general election, with recent polling suggesting it’s neck and neck with Labour and ahead of the Tories.
But now a huge row has erupted between Nigel Farage and his fellow MP Rupert Lowe.
Lowe is currently suspended from the party after being reported to the police over alleged threats towards Reform’s chairman.
He has called the allegations “false” and says it’s because he “dared to question Nigel Farage”.
On the Sky News Daily, Niall Paterson looks at what’s behind the row and examines how damaging it is for Reform with Sky’s chief political correspondent Jon Craig and Gawain Towler, the party’s former director of communications.
By Tim Baker, political reporter
A ‘cloak of secrecy’ created by the UK in its encryption showdown with Apple must be removed, according to a cross-party group of politicians in America.
The group of Democrat and Republican senators and representatives has written to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) ahead of a hearing in secret tomorrow.
It has been reported that this is the case in which Apple is appealing against a Home Office order to weaken its encryption.
This order was made in the form of a Technical Capability Notice (TCN) under the Investigatory Powers Act 2016. The law prevents Apple from discussing even the existence of such an order.
Rather than comply with the order, it appears Apple pulled the relevant product from its service in the UK.
The group of American politicians say UK law has prevented Apple from telling the US Congress about the existence of any TCNs.
By Alix Culbertson, political reporter
The work and pensions secretary has said the government is “determined to fix the broken benefits system” ahead of announcing “radical welfare reforms” next week.
Liz Kendall said the current system has locked “millions” out of work and called it “dysfunctional” as the system places a person in binary categories of either “fit for work” or “not fit for work”.
The government has promised to either reform or replace the Work Capability Assessment – which determines if a person is fit for work or not – as they say it currently drives people who want to work “to a life on benefits”.
Ms Kendall said: “Millions of people have been locked out of work by a failing welfare system which abandons people – when we know there are at least 200,000 people who want to work, and are crying out for the right support and a fair chance.
“This government is determined to fix the broken benefits system we inherited so it genuinely supports people, unlocks work, boosts living standards while putting the welfare bill on a more sustainable footing.”
Ministers have been priming MPs and the public for cuts to a ballooning welfare bill since the start of the year, with details expected next week ahead of an announcement at Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s spring statement on 26 March.
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