Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a target for the number of offenders on the secure estate who have employment roles.

We know that finding employment after release reduces the chance of reoffending significantly, by up to nine percentage points. Undertaking work in custody provides offenders with opportunity to develop key skills that will increase their chance of gaining employment on release and build links with real employers, reducing their risk of reoffending.

The Government has committed to break the cycle of reoffending by improving offenders’ access to purposeful activity and to better support prisons to link up with employers and the voluntary sector to get more people with convictions into work.

Whilst we do set targets for employment post-release, there are currently no plans to set targets for employment in prisons. However, HMPPS have introduced the National Regime Model, creating a national infrastructure for planning, reviewing and measuring purposeful activity for the first time.

Every prison must now deliver a minimum of 60 minutes time in open air per day, 120 minutes time out of cell per day, and one quality key work session per month, and must also set out and be accountable to HMPPS on how they are improving their regime offer year on year.