Prisons throughout the country are grossly overcrowded - Wandsworth prison in my constituency is just one example - and there is a Crisis in Our Prison System.

Does he also accept not only the urgency of a debate in the House but the need for quick action in order to contain the growing Crisis in Our Prison System?

The report was carried out as a result of a Crisis in the Prison System rather than as a result of our recommendations.

Given that the Home Secretary has today announced a record number of people in prison and that a year ago - before we even reached the present level - the prison and borstal governors warned that the prison system was in a state of collapse, will the Leader of the House now give an assurance that we shall have an opportunity to debate the Crisis in the Prison System, or at least have a major statement, before the recess?

The Act was placed on the statute book to deal with an unprecedented Crisis in the Prison System caused by the prison officers' industrial action.

Both the Home Secretary and my right hon. Friend referred to the Crisis in the Prison System.

But there is clearly no single action which could more effectively resolve the Crisis in the Prison System than a reduction in the length of sentences.

The Home Secretary will know very well that we have an enormous Crisis in the Prison System at the moment when, at one point last year, the figure of 45,000 was reached in accommodation that can only properly take, with even some notion of civilised conditions, 37,000.

That is the Crisis in Our Prison System, which must be one of the main reasons why this proposal has been discussed by many people for many years before being brought forward tonight.

Does the Minister accept that this is just the latest manifestation of the problems associated with the real Crisis in Our Present Prison System?

What did Her Majesty's Gracious Speech have to say about dealing with the impending Crisis in the Prison System?

As I was saying, there is nothing in Her Majesty's Gracious Speech to deal with the impending Crisis in the Prison System.

Regrettably, I cannot say the same of the Government's sorry handling of the Crisis in Our Prison System.

The motion is extremely timely because there is a Crisis in Our Prison System.

It is one of the great shames under the Labour Government that they have been unable to tackle the growing Crisis in Our Prison System.

It is extraordinary to watch two parties squabbling over who created the Crisis in Our Prison System.

There is a Crisis in the Prison System.

I agree withthe hon. Member for Arundel and South Downs (Nick Herbert) on one point - there is a Crisis in the Prison System.

That is an attractive proposition, but is any Parliament, when determining the funds for social policies - health, education and so on - likely to vote sufficient funds to a prison estate that will be larger than anyone can predict to ensure that there is never a Crisis in the Prison System?

But the prison reforms, billed as the centrepiece of the gracious Speech, have no prospect of success unless the fundamental Crisis in the Prison System is addressed.