Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether the New Futures Network has staff working specifically on the employment of women in and leaving prison; and whether it works with employers in women’s resettlement areas.

The New Futures Network (NFN) has a full-time Employment Broker dedicated to forging partnerships between prisons in the Women’s Estate and employers. These partnerships provide businesses with individuals who are ready to take up work opportunities within industries workshops, as part of workplace Release on Temporary Licence, and employment on release.

In addition, NFN has a Regional Employment Broker working in each prison group division across England and Wales. Regional Employment Brokers work closely with the NFN broker for the Women’s Estate, sharing employment on release opportunities generated in their geographical areas.

NFN is part of HMPPS whose reporting follows an annual cycle. The available information on prisoners working in custody (which includes activity undertaken by NFN) is published in the HMPPS Annual Digest but is not broken down in the way requested. A copy is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hmpps-annual-digest-2018-to-2019

Additional information that provides a breakdown of national employment outcomes by number, location and gender is published in the Prison and Probation Performance Statistics. The Employment circumstances table outlines all community outcomes and provides location breakdown in table 2 and gender breakdown in table 4 for an individual’s employment status at the start of a community sentence. A copy is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/community-performance-quarterly-update-to-march-2019

NFN intends to report on their work this financial year.