In July 2021, the Department estimated that its court recovery plan and the increase in police officers would result in a shortfall of 4,000 prison places by the end of 2023, over and above the 18,000 additional prison places that HM Treasury had already agreed to fund as part of the Department’s prison build programme.18 In the 2021 Spending Review, the Department secured funding for 2,000 more prison places, bringing total funding to £3.8 billion to deliver 20,000 new prison places by the mid-2020s, including six new prisons.19 The Department said that its strategy is to not only have enough prison places but to have the right types of prisons and in the areas where it most needs them, though it accepted it may not achieve this until the medium to long term.20