Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 11 September 2017 to Question 7023, on Prisons: Education, whether, as part of work to introduce a core common curriculum across the prison estate, the Government will issue guidance to prison governors on assessing the educational needs of prisoners; and whether that guidance will refer to discussion of hate crime or social educational needs.

It will be for empowered governors to determine whether their prison’s curriculum covers modules on discrimination, equality and hate crime.

We are putting in place a range of activity to support prison governors as they take on full responsibility for education provision in their establishments. Last October, the Prisoner Learning Alliance published guidance for prison governors (Greenhouses, not Warehouses: Commissioning education to plant seeds of hope and opportunity). My officials were involved in production of the material, building on our positive relationship, and my Ministerial predecessor was pleased to write a foreword. The published material includes guidance on identifying needs and priorities, including a prompt to consider the challenges in the prison that education could help to solve.

We recently published our invitation to tender to procure successor prison education contracts. This will enable governors to begin the process of choosing who will deliver education in their prison once the current education contracts expire. Once in place, the new education delivery arrangements will mean governors own their education budget, design the curriculum, determine how education is organised and arranged, and decide who delivers it.