Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of literacy-based education provision in prisons.

On 28 September, we announced a new Prisoner Education Service to improve the literacy, numeracy and vocational skills of prisoners. We are embedding literacy in workshops and vocational training, and we are implementing the Literacy Innovation Fund by piloting two specialist reading and literacy projects across fifteen prisons to help prisoners with the lowest reading levels.  This is alongside other Small to Medium Enterprise (SME) projects such as Shannon Trust and Leaders are Readers.

Functional Skills in literacy are subject to ambitious contractual targets with providers financially penalised if they do not meet them. Achievement against literacy functional skills has improved year on year since the end of Covid.

Whole prison reading strategies, recognised as good practice by HMIP, have been developed in all prisons, and reading leads are ensuring that literacy is at the heart of each prison's education provision. Prisoners’ reading levels are assessed on entry so that Personal Learning Plans are in place and the right support for reading is available to them.

Each prison has a library which holds essential legal texts, promotes reading for pleasure and often offer a range of reading activities.  We are improving the delivery of library services and have recently updated and upgraded library contracts, including an uplift in funding.

Prisons have continued to rollout Storybooks Dads and Mums, which helps over 5,000 prisoners a year record bedtime stories for their children, and rolled out new technology, including laptops for prisoners to take part in online courses with the Open University.

In addition, new contracts for education providers in 2025 will have robust targets on maths, English and vocational qualifications, and quality of delivery.