Oral Answers to Questions

Neil Parish Excerpts

Tuesday 6th September 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I am sure he does. We are immensely grateful to him.

[Neil Parish (Tiverton and Honiton) (Con)]

12. What proportion of prisoners are illiterate.

[The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice (Elizabeth Truss)]

Fewer than half of the people entering prison have basic standards of English and maths. This is a huge problem because we know that low levels of education can prevent people from securing jobs on release and leading law-abiding lives.

[Neil Parish]

The Secretary of State is quite right to say that both literacy and numeracy are essential to getting a job. Should we not therefore put more resources into educating prisoners on release so that they are able to get jobs?

[Elizabeth Truss]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The fact is that too many people enter our prisons without those skills. We need to use their time in prison to help them to gain the basic skills so that they can succeed outside. We have started measuring prisoners’ skills by testing them as they enter prison. I am keen to see that we measure real progress made during prisoners’ stay in prison and hold governors accountable for that.