Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department has commissioned a study on the costs of unemployment among ex-offenders.

We know that the economic and social cost of reoffending is approximately £18 billion per year. Evidence also shows that prison leavers who get a job within a year after release are up to nine percentage points less likely to reoffend compared to those who do not.

That is why we are committed to delivering a presumption in favour of offering offenders the chance to work in prison, on Release on Temporary Licence and on release, including by building stronger links with employers. We are on track to roll out Prison Employment Leads, Employment Hubs and Employment Advisory Boards across all 91 resettlement prisons by April 2023.

The proportion of prisoners released from custody employed at six months from their release rose by almost two thirds to 23% between April 2021 and March 2022.