Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government (1) how many, and (2) what percentage of offenders in England and Wales completing custodial sentences of greater than 12 months are in (a) full-time training, and (b) full-time employment three months after leaving custody, in the last year.

We do not currently hold the data as requested.

Based on matched MOJ-DWP data on the proportion of working age adult offenders released from prison in 2011/12 who were in P45 employment one year after release we know that there is no difference in P45 employment rates over a one year period for those serving sentences of fewer or greater than 12 months.

For those serving custodial sentences of fewer than 12 months;

• 17% were in P45 employment one year after release from prison

And for those serving custodial sentences of greater than 12 months;

• 17% were in P45 employment one year after release from prison

More recent data from 2014/15 indicates that at a national level, 26.5% of prisoners were entering employment upon release, but this data was self-reported and we don’t have a split in this rate for length of sentence served.

Securing employment after a sentence has a positive impact on rates of reoffending. Offenders who found P45 employment in the twelve months after release from prison had one year re-offending rates that were 6-9 percentage points lower than similar offenders who did not find employment.

That is why we have launched the Education and Employment Strategy. The strategy will create a system in which each prisoner is set on a path to employment from the outset, with prison education and work geared towards employment on release.

Our strategy includes a range of initiatives to support this ambition. For example, we will empower governors to commission education provision that leads to work, we will engage and persuade employers to take on ex-prisoners via the New Futures Network (NFN) and we will consult governors and employers on proposals to increase the opportunities available to prisoners to gain experience in real workplaces through Release On Temporary Licence.