Minister Rules out Sending Prisoners to Australia to Free Up Jail Space

Damian Hinds said the government is in talks with ‘near-world’ countries on renting overseas prison cells to ease Britain’s prison population crisis.

Damian Hinds, then UK education secretary, leaves 10 Downing Street after the weekly Cabinet Meeting on July 9, 2019. Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Prisoners will not be sent as far away as Australia under new government plans to rent prison cells overseas, it’s been confirmed.

Labour MP Tahir Ali posed the question to prisons minister Damian Hinds, saying it has been suggested the country is being considered as a destination for inmates under new plans to ease the UK’s booming jail population.