Oral Answers to Questions

Michael Fabricant Excerpts

Tuesday 23rd June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Michael Tomlinson (Mid Dorset and North Poole) (Con)]

2. What his plans are for the future of rehabilitation services for prisoners; and if he will make a statement.

[Michael Fabricant (Lichfield) (Con)]

10. What his plans are for the future of rehabilitation services for prisoners; and if he will make a statement.

[Jeremy Lefroy (Stafford) (Con)]

14. What his plans are for the future of rehabilitation services for prisoners; and if he will make a statement.

--- Later in debate ---

[Michael Gove]

I commend my hon. Friend for raising the work of those two voluntary sector organisations. Without the work of voluntary and third sector organisations, we would not be able to provide the educational and rehabilitative services that enable people who are currently in our prisons to have a second chance.

[Michael Fabricant]

It is not just voluntary services that have a role to play, but private businesses such as Marks & Spencer, and indeed other well known department stores. Does my right hon. Friend agree that we should encourage private enterprise to help in the rehabilitation of offenders to get them back to work?

[Michael Gove]

I absolutely agree—that is a very good point. May I single out for praise the John Lewis Partnership, which does such a fantastic job in helping people from a variety of backgrounds to be all they can be? I stress that there are other organisations, such as Greggs the bakers and, of course, Timpson, the shoe and key repair firm. John Timpson’s leadership in providing ex-offenders with a second chance is exemplary.

--- Later in debate ---

[Sir Edward Garnier (Harborough) (Con)]

Between 2005 and 2009, I visited about 65 prisons in England and Wales, and it was my universal experience that the work done by prisoners was more or less useless to the outside world. In one prison, I saw people making hairnets. No doubt there is a market for hairnets—

[Michael Fabricant (Lichfield) (Con)]

There is!

[Sir Edward Garnier]

None of the prisoners in that prison—it was not too far from Lichfield!—was ever going to leave prison to work in a hairnet factory. Will my hon. Friend please ensure that proper wages are paid for the work we tell prisoners to do, so that they can support their families, rather than the welfare state, and can leave prison and get a job that they want to do?