Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the number of offenders who have had employment on release in each of the last 12 years.

We remain committed to increasing the number of prison leavers securing employment on release. The proportion of persons released from custody employed at six months from their release rose by almost two thirds between April 2021 and March 2022. This is an increase of 9 percentage points from 14% to 23%.

We do not hold the information for the period requested for the reasons stated below.

Employment on release was collected for a prison Key Performance Indicator which ran from 2007/08 to 2014/15. This data was based on self-reporting by prisoners at the point of discharge from custody, with no requirement for supporting evidence, and was discontinued in light of concerns over the reliability of the data. It was replaced by data collected by Community Rehabilitation Companies in nDelius; a system used for the management of offenders subject to probation supervision.

Employment data collection in nDelius did not start until 2016. Specific direction to do so at the 6-week point was issued in 2021. Data prior to November 2018 is incomplete, therefore complete yearly data is provided for the 2019/20 financial year onwards and is not comparable to before November 2018.

Statistics on employment at six weeks post release are available through the following link: Community Performance Annual, update to March 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).