Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether she has made a comparative assessment of the relationship between literacy improvement and re-offending rates.

We have robust evidence on the positive benefits of education to reducing reoffending, however, we don’t have specific evidence for the link between literacy levels and reoffending. We are currently improving our understanding of factors influencing participation in different prison education types, including literacy courses, through the Better Outcomes through Linked Data (BOLD) programme.

This learning will continue to support our evolving understanding of what more we can do to improve literacy in prisons. We are also investing in an evaluation of the new Prisoner Education Service which will include the delivery of functional English skills.

The success of formal literacy education is primarily measured by prisoners ‘achieving’ and getting an accredited qualification. Latest published data (for 2023/24) shows a 5% increase in participation in English functional skills and a 21% increase in prisoner learners who achieved a full grade in English functional skills, compared to 2022/23, across public prisons in England