Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps the Government is taking to improve education in prisons.

Since the publication of the Education and Employment Strategy last year, we have overhauled the prison education system, giving governors control over their education budgets and have implemented a new approach to education provision

These fundamentally change how prison education is delivered. Governors now have the tools, and budget, to commission the education provision that best meets the needs of their prisoners and the local labour market.

To complement the Prison Education Framework which provides core education, we have developed a Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS). This enables governors to commission bespoke education often from smaller suppliers, local and third sector organisations. This will enhance governors’ ability to find the training most responsive to employers’ requirements and most appropriate for prisoners’ learning needs.