Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the (a) rehabilitation, (b) employment and (c) reablement programmes provided by HM Prison and Probation Service.

We are investing £550 million to rehabilitate offenders by getting them off drugs and into work and stable accommodation.

Between April 2021 and March 2022, the proportion of prisoners released from custody employed at six months rose by almost two thirds.

Together with NHS England, we are continuing to improve services in prison to ensure that people have access to timely and effective mental health care that is tailored to their needs. This will be reflected in the new National Partnership Agreement on health and social care in England, which is due to be published shortly, and the refreshed NHS England mental health service specification for prisons, which will be rolled out by April 2023.