Osborne: nine new prisons to be opened

The prisons will open in England and Wales, to replace and close older Victorian jails, allowing them to be sold for housing. The move will also result in the transfer of around 10,000 inmates, intended to save an estimated £80 million a year.

The Chancellor announced that Holloway women's prison is to close so that women prisoners will serve their sentences in 'more humane' conditions.

Osborne also informed that underused courts will be closed and the money saved to fund a £700m investment in new technology to speed up the justice process.