Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment she has made of literacy levels of prisoners in England and Wales in each of the last five years; and if she will make a statement.

The data requested is only available from August 2014 and shows for both the 2014/15 and 2015/16 Academic Years that fewer than half the people entering prisons have basic standards of English and around a third have identified learning difficulties.

Prisons should be places of safety and reform, and it is vital we use the time in prison productively. Having basic English and Maths skills helps people get jobs on release and helps them lead law abiding lives, and I am determined to make sure that we achieve better outcomes for all prisoners.

We will test offenders’ English and Maths skills on entry and as they leave prison and hold governors to account for these outcomes. We will use the results from the testing regime to create personalised learning objectives as part of the sentence plan. To support that, we will introduce a core common curriculum and empower Governors to put in place a framework of incentives to encourage participation by those prisoners with poor literacy skills.