Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to increase the number of employment hubs in prisons.

The MoJ, working with DWP, is committed to improving the employment outcomes of prisoners on release. To enable this, employment hubs have been set up within some prisons to mirror job centres in the community. It is intended that the hubs will help prisoners obtain information and advice for employment related matters before release.

HMPPS’ New Futures Network, which acts as a broker for finding job opportunities on release, has worked with a range of partners to establish Employment Hubs – first in six prisons in the North West regions, and gradually in further prisons across the estate.

The Hubs will help to better identify and match vacancies to the serving prisoners who are ready to take on employment when they are released. They will do this by advertising job vacancies, improving communications and sharing physical spaces for the various teams and providers to work together.

Currently, there are 9 Employment Hubs that are fully operational. A further 19 Hubs are running ‘limited operations’ including HMP Brixton. 23 hubs are not yet operational including HMP Belmarsh, but development work is ongoing. Timescales for delivery are varied.