Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of rehabilitative work in prisons post covid-19.

We continue to deliver on the commitments in the Prison Strategy White Paper to reduce reoffending. This work includes investment in digital infrastructure, more training that delivers the skills employers need, more education experts to support Governors and improved support for prisoners with additional learning needs.

Since lifting the National Framework for Prison Regimes and Services in May 2022, we are securing increasing numbers of learners back in the classroom and participating in rehabilitative activities. As set out in the Prisons Strategy White Paper, we are committed to improving education in prisons and we are delivering a Prisoner Education Service to raise prisoners’ levels of numeracy, literacy, skills and qualifications with the aim of helping them secure jobs upon release and drive down reoffending.

The numbers of places being offered on rehabilitative activity such as accredited programmes has increased throughout the prison estate as regimes allow and we are able to run larger groups. For this 2022-2023 delivery year, targets for the number of accredited programme places to be delivered is back up to 90% of pre-covid delivery levels. This is a significant improvement on delivery during covid in 2021-2022 where 1,848 people, around 35% of pre-covid levels, completed an accredited programme in prison.

Despite ongoing challenges, prisons have already achieved over 1,800 accredited programme completions this year to date. Additionally, there is ongoing engagement activity to support individuals into accredited programmes to improve uptake and completion rates. Other non-accredited activity, such as internally approved interventions provide additional support where there is no relevant accredited programme available.