Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to improve literacy rates in prison; what estimate he has made of illiteracy levels among prisoners (a) in 2022 and (b) in 2017; and if he will make a statement.

We are working to deliver a Prisoner Education Service that equips prisoners with the numeracy, literacy, and skills they need to get jobs after they leave custody.

Since we introduced more consistent initial assessments in 2019, data has been relatively stable and indicates that many prisoners arrive with low levels of literacy. Our latest published data shows that, from April 2021 to March 2022, 61% of English initial assessment outcomes were at the entry levels 1-3 (equivalent to primary school). Data for 2022 will be published next year.

Improving functional skills is a significant element of education provision and we set ambitious targets for education providers regarding learners successfully obtaining qualifications.

We have also made progress on actions following Ofsted and HM Inspectorate of Prisons recent review of reading in prisons, including ensuring appropriate functional skills qualifications are delivered, increasing the scrutiny of library provision and piloting reading assessment tools.

To improve support for prisoners with additional learning needs we have started to recruit new support managers for prisoners with conditions such as learning disabilities, autism, acquired brain injury or ADHD and we are trialling the use of new reading assessment tools.

We are also trailing new approaches to encourage literacy including embedding literacy in workshops and vocational training as well as in football coaching via the Twinning project.