Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to help prisoners develop new skills.

We know that getting prisoners into employment on release is key to leading law-abiding lives in the community. Prisoners who participate in in-prison education are 9 percentage points less likely to reoffend on release. To help prisoners develop new skills we are:

• delivering a Prisoner Education Service which raises the level of the numeracy, literacy and skills of prisoners, with the aim of securing jobs or apprenticeships after they leave custody;

• rolling out new Heads of Education Skills and Work to provide expert guidance to governors in designing education and training provision for their populations;

• establishing an Employability Innovation Fund to enable Governors to work with more employers and training providers to repurpose workshops, deliver sector specific skills training and to improve prisoners’ literacy via a Literacy Innovation Fund; and

• allowing prisoners to undertake apprenticeships which they can complete in the community following a change in the law made in September 2022.