Oral Answers to Questions

Tom Pursglove Excerpts

Tuesday 6th September 2016 Commons Chamber

[David Mackintosh (Northampton South) (Con)]

11. What steps the Government are taking to ensure that offenders find employment on release.

[Tom Pursglove (Corby) (Con)]

16. What progress her Department is making on ensuring that offenders find employment on release.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Mr Sam Gyimah)]

Most offenders arrive in prison with very low levels of educational attainment, very high levels of substance misuse and a very poor employment history. I believe that the purpose of modern prisons is to keep the public safe and to tackle each of those issues, so that prisoners have the foundations to secure and hold down a job on release.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Gyimah]

I agree with my hon. Friend that if “through the gate services”, as we call them, are to work and to stop reoffending, national insurance numbers, bank accounts and so forth need to be in place. There is a series of programmes in place to tackle this problem, including an offender banking programme, which opens about 5,000 new bank accounts every year.

[Tom Pursglove]

The Minister has rightly identified the fact that research shows that employment after custody greatly reduces the chances of reoffending, so what work is his Department doing with the Department for Work and Pensions to make sure that offenders not only find work after they leave prison, but stay in work?

[Mr Gyimah]

As my hon. Friend has rightly identified, tackling the challenge—and it is a challenge—of getting prisoners work when they leave requires a concerted effort across government and locally across the community. Every prisoner has the opportunity to meet a DWP work coach before release, and the work coach’s role is to guide them towards employment. Work coaches can also ensure that prisoners know their national insurance numbers and get the other services they need to be able to make an appropriate transition into the community.