On Tuesday I noted the revelation that court cells cost £1600 a night, just a whisper more expensive than a deluxe suite at the Ritz.

But it turns out I was duped. Humble apologies.

The £120,000 the Home Office has paid out for court cell accommodation wasn’t for the whole of this year, it was for just 20 nights back in January and February. This was admitted by the Ministry of Justice this morning.

And it paid for not 77 prisoners, but a measly 12.

That’s £10,000 a night each. And I can’t find a hotel in London that charges that much; even the capacious Prince of Wales suite at the Ritz is only £5,500. A snip!

Today, the Home Office tells us they don’t know how many people sentenced to life since 1997 have already been released.

This is rather surprising given that back in June last year they seemed perfectly able to access the information.

With the average life sentence now just 11 years – which makes rather a mockery of calling it “life” at all, it’s pretty important we know just how short some of these life sentences can be. Calling a one or two year sentence “life” is basically just a lie, and the government should come clean about it.

Of course, last time they came clean, the papers didn’t take kindly to the news that lifers were, as they put it, “roaming the streets”. Could the fear of bad publicity be what’s prompting Gerry Sutcliffe’s reticence? Surely not…