A prison governors' leader has warned of a "serious risk" of disturbances in jails throughout England and Wales due to a shortage of funding.

Prison Governors Association (PGA) President Paul Tidball said prisons are in a "crippling, vicious circle", and declared jails could become "less stable" if further cutbacks are put through to finance new prisons.

Mr Tidball said: "A miracle would be the wrong term, but it is an incredible achievement for the prison service to have kept the lid on the prison estate conditions where there are constant and ever present over crowding crises."

He added: "We are concerned that the existing prisons are being starved of resources to help pay for the new ones. As we all know over the last few weeks there is not much money to go around."

Mr Tidball also said cutbacks this financial year meant prisoners had to remain locked in their cells more and had less opportunity to take part in activities, like measures to reduce re-offending.

Figures, according to the PGA President, have shown "substantial" improvements in re-offending rates. There have also been a reduction in the number of security incidents.

"This is a tribute to the hard work and professionalism of staff," he said. "There is a danger of that being thrown out of the window by cutting the budgets even further and to do so by reducing the number of managers is a risk.

"There is a danger that by reducing the regimes and indeed the number of managers to the extent that is proposed, that prisons will become less stable."

Mr Tidball - a former Governor of Cardiff Prison - will make his speech at the annual conference of the PGA in Buxton, Derbyshire, which represents almost 1,300 prison governors across the UK.

(JM)