Emergency plans drawn up amid fears prisons will run out of space in just weeks

Warnings have been issued that the UK's prisons are so overcrowded they may not be able to hold any further convicted criminals. Tom Wheatley, of the Prison Governors Association, has claimed there are just weeks before jails will run out of space.

This means it is likely the incoming Prime Minister is to be faced with a huge crisis. Officials are said to be already working on emergency countermeasures - including preparing to release thousands of prisoners early.

Mr Wheatley said: "We understand that we will no longer be able to receive prisoners from court in the second to third week of July. It is not an exact science – but it is very soon after the election.

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"This position was projected some time ago. The outgoing government did not take the necessary action in a timely fashion to avoid this."

Wheatley said any attempt to cram criminals into prisons beyond the operational capacity could be challenged in the courts, Express reports. He said: "If a new government arrives and says "we want more people in" it would be challenged in court by the PGA because ministers would be placing our members at risk."

Latest data from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) revealed the capacity in prisons across England and Wales is 88,815, while the population stands at 87,347. New legislation would have to be introduced if the Government wanted to release criminals early.

But it is under consideration because officials fear the early release scheme – which sees convicts freed up to 70 days before their due state – will no longer prove effective. This is because more offenders will need to be locked up than are being released.

The Ministry of Justice is said to be scrambling to relieve pressure in the short term, including by ensuring cells are 'doubled up'. They are also said to be speeding up maintenance projects, removing foreign national offenders to the immigration estate and moving low-level offenders to the open estate.

It is understood officials believe any overcrowding crisis will start regionally, which could mean convicts are pushed into neighbouring regions. The North West has been identified as a particular area of concern, it is believed.

Sue Gray, Labour’s chief of staff, is understood to have identified prison overcrowding as potentially the most pressing problem on a "s--t list" of crises if Labour forms the next government. The Ministry of Justice has also launched Operation Early Dawn, where criminals are kept in police cells until the Prison Service can guarantee a space for them to be remanded.

Officials are said to have drawn up plans to reduce the time served by prisoners from the current halfway point in their sentences to about 43 per cent. Modelling shows this would be the most effective medium-term solution to the crisis, generating thousands of spare places.

It would replace the current early release scheme.