Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether the provisions of the Courts Bill as introduced will include a legal duty on prisons to reform and rehabilitate offenders.

The Prison Safety and Reform White Paper published in November set out a clear plan for reform and is achievable without legislation. To that end there will be no prison measures in the Courts Bill.

We remain absolutely committed to continuing to reform our prisons, delivering our white paper to make them places of reform and rehabilitation. We are already making good progress against that plan: for example, we are transforming our prison estate by closing old and dilapidated prisons and creating 10,000 new places through a £1.3 billion investment.