Jail overcrowding costs £5m a month

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That monthly bill would be almost double that predicted by Home Secretary John Reid when quizzed by MPs in January.

His department faces a total bill of £23 million since prisoners first began to be held at police stations, The Times claimed.

Inmates have been held in police cells to alleviate pressure on prisons since October last year, with a one month break over Christmas, under Operation Safeguard.

But a Home Office spokesman said it was not yet possible to provide accurate costings of the move.

Home Office minister Gerry Sutcliffe told the Commons last month that the average national cost per prisoner is £385 each night.

Between October 12 and December 22 last year, Operation Safeguard was used on 4,617 occasions, he added.

The move was reactivated on January 22 and is ongoing. There are no figures available for the number of prisoner nights spent in police cells in 2007. Forces can submit their bill to the Home Office up to 90 days in arrears.

The present prison population in England and Wales is about 80,000.

A Home Office spokesman said: "The prison population fluctuates on a daily basis and as soon as it is practical not to be in Safeguard we will not be."