Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have any plans to reduce the reoffending rate of prisoners in the UK, given the cost of recidivism to the wider economy.

The Government has several plans underway to reduce the reoffending rate in the UK and the associated £15billion cost to society.

Prisons must be places of rehabilitation and we have announced an extra £30million of funding to enhance safety, security and decency across the estate.

On 24 May we launched the Education and Employment Strategy to create a system in which each prisoner is set on a path to employment.

On 27 June we published a strategy which sets out the Government’s commitment to a new programme of work for female offenders to enable their rehabilitation.

The new National Partnership Agreement (NPA) was published on 10 April 2018 confirms our commitment to work collaboratively to deliver safe, legal, decent and effective care that improves prisoners’ health and thus rehabilitation.

The Cabinet Office has established a new cross-government Reducing Reoffending Board to tackle some of the main causes of reoffending including employment, health and accommodation.

We are also working closely with the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government to support their Rough Sleeping Strategy which aims to eliminate rough sleeping by 2027.