Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many training places and work-related experience places have been provided by the One3One Solutions, since it replaced the Prison Industries Unit, in each prison in England and Wales; and if he will make a statement.

Information is not collected and recorded to identify separately prisoner training and work-related places specifically attributed to ONE3ONE Solutions at each prison in England and Wales. To provide the information requested would incur disproportionate cost as it would need to be extracted from different management information systems including local and central records, quality checked, recorded and formatted.

Work in prisons is a key priority to ensure that prisoners are engaged purposefully whilst they are in custody. It also gives them the opportunity to learn skills and a work ethic which can increase their chances of finding employment on release, a key element to reducing reoffending.

We are committed to increasing the number of prisoners working. The number of prisoners working in workshops in public sector prisons rose significantly from 8,600 at the end of 2010-11 to 9,700 at the end of 2012-13. Private sector prisons have also been supporting this agenda and have reported that they provided work for some 1,200 prisoners in 2012-13.

This work does not include the large numbers of jobs prisoners undertake such as cooking, serving meals, maintenance and cleaning that contributes to the upkeep of prisons and helps offset the cost of imprisonment.

Figures for public sector prisons are published in the NOMS Annual Report Management Information Addendum: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/225225/mi-addendum.pdf. .