Some 2,400 people are currently waiting to be called to serve a prison sentence because of the shortage of staff in the Netherlands’ jails, broadcaster NOS said on Thursday, quoting justice ministry figures.

Every week the waiting list grows by around 75 people because of the lack of available cells and the government has proposed radical steps to solve the problem.

MPs will on Thursday debate legal protection minister Franc Weerwind’s proposal to delay all sentences of less than two months as an “acute and temporary” measure and supplement that with more electronic tagging and time in rehabilitation units rather than jail.

In the Netherlands people who are sentenced to prison terms are not always jailed immediately after a verdict.

Weerwind said last month that currently 330 prison cells are out of circulation because of the shortage of staff and this has also led to a lack of capacity at police stations.

Lilian Helder, an MP for the pro-farmers party BBB, has suggested people should be locked in their cells for two hours longer a day in an effort to free up guards for other duties.

That plan is unlikely to be supported by potential coalition partners NSC and the VVD, NOS said.