Madam Deputy Speaker (Judith Cummins)
We now come to the Select Committee statement on behalf of the Justice Committee. Andy Slaughter will speak for up to 10 minutes, during which time no interventions may be taken. At the conclusion of his statement, I will call Members to ask questions on the subject of the statement. These should be brief questions, not full speeches. I emphasise that questions should be directed to the Select Committee Chair, and not to the relevant Minister. Front Benchers may take part in questioning.
Andy Slaughter (Hammersmith and Chiswick) (Lab)
I thank the Backbench Business Committee for allocating time for me to make a statement on behalf of the Justice Committee. This is the seventh report of the Committee and its subject is rehabilitation in prisons.
This time last year, the Justice Committee began its principal inquiry to look at the crisis of reoffending against the backdrop of a broken criminal justice system. Around 80% of all offending is reoffending. That figure alone suggests there is a serious issue, and that His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service is not currently serving its stated mission of rehabilitating the people in its care. The purposes of prisons are clear: punishing, protecting the public, and rehabilitating offenders. The opportunity for offenders to be rehabilitated in prison should not be considered a luxury; it is a fundamental necessity to ensure that those who have done their time can return to society as law-abiding citizens.
The evidence we received, however, paints a starkly different picture. Instead of being places of reform, too many of our prisons have become places of stagnation, where offenders languish and rehabilitation opportunities are scarce. Our inquiry into rehabilitation has taken place amid a prison capacity crisis. Overcrowding, staffing shortages and deteriorating infrastructure have created conditions that actively undermine rehabilitation. The Committee found that the current conditions across the prison estate are simply not conducive to reform.
Overcrowding has led to arbitrary prisoner transfers, disrupted sentence progression, and reduced access to purposeful activity, education and family contact. With the demand for prison places set to keep increasing, the Government must set out the steps they will take to ensure that rehabilitation is not compromised, alongside how they intend to manage demand and supply.
The challenges do not end there. In the 12 months to 30 June 2025, there was a leaving rate of almost 12% among prison officers. These staffing shortages are not just an operational inconvenience, but a public safety risk. As we heard recently, in the year to March, 262 prisoners have been released in error. Overworked staff, outdated systems and inadequate training have meant that when officers are stretched to breaking point, the likelihood of administrative errors skyrockets.
Current levels of wrongful releases are not isolated blunders, but symptomatic of a system under intolerable strain. Alongside that, high turnover, poor recruitment processes and limited professional development have all contributed to a culture that hinders rehabilitation. Governors lack the autonomy to lead effectively, and the current staffing model is unsustainable. The Committee recommends that prison staff should receive training at least annually, with more frequent support as they progress through their careers.
Furthermore, the prison estate is in a state of disrepair. Dilapidated buildings and broken infrastructure limit access to rehabilitative spaces and contribute to poor mental health. Despite recent capital investment, it remains unclear how the Government intend to address the £1.8 billion maintenance backlog. That backlog is not just a financial figure; it represents real barriers to rehabilitation. We call on the Government to provide a clear breakdown of how funding will be used to address the backlog and to ensure that investment is targeted at improving prison conditions and rehabilitative activities.
The Committee is deeply concerned by the widespread failure to meet the statutory minimum for time out of cell. Many prisoners are locked up for 22 hours or more each day, with limited access to fresh air, showers or rehabilitation. This lack of time out of cell undermines efforts to reduce reoffending and contributes to poor mental health and disengagement.
Purposeful activity including education, work and offending behaviour programmes is central to rehabilitation, yet it is inconsistently delivered and often deprioritised. The Sentencing Bill rightly aims to incentivise good behaviour and engagement in purposeful activity through its earned progression model, but this ambition will fail if purposeful activity remains inaccessible. The Committee calls for a renewed focus on ensuring that all prisoners have access to meaningful activity, for time out of cell to be formalised and standardised, and for data on it to be published.
Education is the cornerstone of rehabilitation, yet prison education is underfunded and poorly delivered. Participation rates are low—50% of prisoners are not in education or work. For those who do take part, Ofsted ratings remain poor, with 75% of prisons inspected in 2024-25 rated “inadequate” or “showing no improvement”. It is therefore unsurprising that two thirds of offenders are not in education or work six months after release from prison. Given that, we are alarmed by reports of significant real-term cuts to prison education budgets of up to 50%. We expect the Government to clarify the rationale of any budget reduction.
Conditions across the youth estate are also in decline. Children in custody are entitled to 15 hours of education a week, yet the Committee heard that that minimum is routinely not met and that children are spending up to 23 hours a day in cell due to the failure of HM Prison and Probation Service to manage behaviour effectively. As well as making every effort to meet the statutory minimum of 15 hours of education, HMPPS must set a statutory minimum for time out of cell in young offender institutions.
Health and wellbeing services are failing to meet the needs of prisoners. Mental health support is inconsistent and operational pressures prevent timely access to care. Women in prison face acute and complex health needs, yet the system is failing to provide even basic support. Although the Government have set out their ambition to reduce the number of women in custody, it is unclear what action will be taken for those currently in prison. The Committee expects the Government to respond with a clear plan for how they will meet the health and wellbeing needs of the women currently in their care.
Remand prisoners now make up 20% of the prison population—the highest level in at least 50 years—yet they remain excluded from much of the prison regime, including access to education. We heard that remand prisoners often spend extended periods in custody only to be released directly from court following conviction, without any support or intervention. This raises serious concerns about how the Government expect these individuals to avoid reoffending. Rehabilitation must be available the moment someone enters custody, and remand prisoners should therefore have access to all parts of the regime, should they choose to participate.
There is plenty more to be done to improve outcomes for offenders. The Committee will shortly commence part 2 of its inquiry by examining how rehabilitation continues in the community for those released from prison, as well as those serving non-custodial sentences. A further report will follow, making not only recommendations for changes in how community sentences work, but long-term recommendations for structural reform across the criminal justice system in order to once and for all end the cycle of reoffending.
Let me be clear: the time for action cannot wait. The Sentencing Bill represents a welcome opportunity to rethink how we reduce reoffending, but legislation alone will not deliver rehabilitation. I apologise that it is a bleak prospect that I set out, but that is the reality of prison life—prisons are simply not working, and that is particularly true in the field of rehabilitation. As this report sets out, legislation must be matched by renewed focus from HMPPS to deliver better time out of cell, education, and health and wellbeing services. I urge the Government to take these recommendations seriously, to promote rehabilitation effectively and to ensure that our prisons are places of reform, not despair.
The Government have inherited a very difficult situation here. They are trying to address that in a number of ways, but the prisons crisis cannot be underestimated—we have seen the symptoms recently in wrongful releases and other tragedies in prison sentencing. We have to deliver a system that truly serves the public good, and that will come in the longer term only with effective rehabilitation in prisons.
Tessa Munt (Wells and Mendip Hills) (LD)
I thank the hon. Gentleman for presenting the Committee’s statement. With the chief inspector of prisons recently concluding that the outcomes for children in custody are not improving and the urgent notification issued to Oakhill secure training centre, and given that it is children we are discussing, does the hon. Gentleman agree that the conditions across the youth estate are completely unacceptable and, as recommended, the Government should produce an action plan for youth custody?
Andy Slaughter
I thank the hon. Member, who is an effective and active member of the Committee, for her question. We should not ignore the fact that youth custody is one of the successes of the prison system in the sense that over the past few decades, the number of young people in custody has gone down from over 3,000, I think, to around 400. However, those who remain in youth custody, in a rather confused variety of institutions, are not being well served. It is the intention of the Committee to look at youth custody and young people in prison itself, but we can only examine and recommend; it is for the Government to look as a matter of urgency at the crisis in the youth estate for those who remain in custody.
Warinder Juss (Wolverhampton West) (Lab)
I thank my hon. Friend for his statement. Does he agree that reducing reoffending through rehabilitation is the key to reducing not only prison overcrowding, but the court backlog? It is unacceptable that prisoners very often have to make the choice between engaging in work or education and accessing their basic needs, such as time out in the fresh air, a shower or a hot meal.
Andy Slaughter
It is certainly true that there is a close relationship between the crisis in the courts and the crisis in prisons. A good example is that, as I mentioned in my statement, the number of people on remand is at a 50-year high, with remand prisoners occupying prison places for far longer than they should be. It is also true that if we can break the cycle of reoffending—as I have said, 80% of offences are reoffending—the numbers in prisons will come down. That in itself will make rehabilitation in prisons a lot easier, which will mean that fewer people will be coming before the courts. We are in a downwards spiral at the moment, and we have to not only stop that but reduce it; lower numbers of offences against the public at large mean fewer people in prison and fewer people before the courts. It is a big ask, but if we do not start with that, we will not get there.
Sir Julian Lewis (New Forest East) (Con)
In the light of the urgent question earlier today, does the Chairman of the Committee believe that it is essential for the purpose of rehabilitation that prisoners should be protected against indoctrination by convicted terrorists?
Andy Slaughter
I do believe that—very much so. I believe that is what this Government, and indeed previous Governments, have set out to achieve. I hope that the report by Jonathan Hall KC will shine a light on what is not working; given his background, I believe that it will. The Government then have to implement that. One of the problems with prisons, as we covered in another recent report on drug culture in prison, is the operation of not just extremists but organised crime. The lack of control, organisation and discipline, not only in the prisons that Jonathan Hall KC talks about, but across the prison estate, is one of the most worrying aspects of prison life.
Sarah Russell (Congleton) (Lab)
There is an epidemic of violence against women and girls in this country, and the Government have a stated aim of reducing that by 50%. In that context, it is critical that our prisons play their role in rehabilitation. Does the Chair of the Select Committee agree that with 70% of people being released from remand—either directly because they are found not guilty or, in fact, because they are found guilty but released on the basis of time served—we are missing a huge opportunity to do rehabilitative work, because it is typically not offered at all to those on remand?
Andy Slaughter
The numbers of women and, indeed, young people in prison are a small percentage of the prison population, but they give particular cause for concern. As I mentioned in my statement, the health and mental health needs of women prisoners and the levels of self-harm are both higher. There is a clear need there and it is one that, to be fair, the Government have recognised and which they have policies to address. It is the practicality that we are lacking at the moment, because of the levels of support required. I welcome that the Government have clearly said that they want to see fewer women in prison, but we need to know how that will be achieved from this point onwards.
Vikki Slade (Mid Dorset and North Poole) (LD)
Around half of prisoners are neurodivergent and the population of young prisoners with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is around 10 times higher than in the population at large. With such specialist targeted support needed for those prisoners, we have heard that they have been let down by the system and that they cannot access the right support at the right time, regardless of the new system that is in place. Does the hon. Member agree that the delay in producing an update to the neurodiversity action plan is unacceptable and that it really must be published straightaway?
Andy Slaughter
The hon. Lady is the newest member of the Committee, and I am pleased to see her here today. She has obviously got behind the brief very quickly: we are waiting for an update on the neurodiversity action plan. Many levels of societal problems are reflected to a much higher level in prisons, whether that be around people with learning difficulties, literacy problems or neurodivergence. That is not a coincidence, but it is a wake-up call to the fact that such issues have to be addressed. Rehabilitation is for all prisoners, and special steps need to be taken, particularly in relation to neurodiverse prisoners. I hope that we are going to see that. The very capable Minister for Courts and Legal Services is in her place, listening to all this, and I am sure that she will tell us soon when that action plan will be updated.
Bills Presented
Tax Reliefs (Evaluation)
Presentation and First Reading (Standing Order No. 57)
Bobby Dean presented a Bill to require the Secretary of State to establish and maintain a framework for the regular evaluation of tax reliefs, including in relation to their effectiveness, cost and value for money and to require annual reporting under that framework; to require the Secretary of State to review all existing tax reliefs; and for connected purposes.
Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 16 January 2026, and to be printed (Bill 335).
Declaration of Income and Gifts by Candidates for Elected Office (Russian Federation)
Presentation and First Reading (Standing Order No. 57)
Max Wilkinson, supported by Lisa Smart, presented a Bill to place a duty on candidates for elected office to declare any past or current income or gifts from the government of the Russian Federation or from any person or organisation connected to that government; to place a duty on political parties to ensure that their candidates have made this declaration; and for connected purposes.
Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 10 July 2026, and to be printed (Bill 334).