Matt Warman
Main Page: Matt Warman (Conservative - Boston and Skegness)Department Debates - View all Matt Warman's debates with the Ministry of Justice
(7 years, 2 months ago)
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Rebecca Pow (Taunton Deane) (Con)
5. What steps the Government are taking to improve offenders’ access to education and employment.
Matt Warman (Boston and Skegness) (Con)
16. What steps the Government are taking to improve offenders’ access to education and employment.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Mr Sam Gyimah)
Education and employment opportunities are crucial to help offenders to turn around their lives. In line with our reforms, every prisoner will have a personal learning plan linked to their sentence plan. To make this reform effective, we are giving governors control over their education budgets to organise courses that fit prisoners’ needs.
Mr Gyimah
My hon. Friend is right. I remember visiting Rye Hill prison near Daventry and seeing the pride with which prisoners tended their gardens; they spent hours doing so. She may be aware of the Royal Horticultural Society Windlesham trophy award, which is judged by an independent panel that looks at the best gardening schemes across the prison estate. If she does not mind, I should be delighted to put her name forward to be a judge.
Matt Warman
Category D prisons often have the very best examples of rehabilitation as they prepare to let their prisoners back into the community. North Sea Camp in my constituency has worked with the council not only on that rehabilitative work to prepare prisoners for work but, for example, on fly-tipping, saving the taxpayer £300,000. Does the Minister agree that the other prisons in the sector can learn from category D’s rehabilitative practices, and will he come to North Sea Camp and have a look at how well they can work?
Mr Gyimah
My hon. Friend has lighted on an important principle. Work in prison is vital to preparing prisoners for life after release—North Sea Camp has an excellent example—which is why I am supporting the New Futures Network to develop relationships between employers, governors and the world of work. I would be delighted to visit North Sea Camp in due course.