Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bellamy on 6 March (HL5835), whether the model to deliver education when current contract arrangements end for the Prison Education Framework will use different lots of prison groups to those under the existing Framework.

We are creating a Prisoner Education Service (PES) that will ensure prisoners improve skills such as literacy and numeracy, acquire relevant vocational qualifications, and access employment and training opportunities on release.

A regional lotting structure will be applied to the successor contracts to the current Prison Education Framework. Final decisions will be communicated through the procurement process for the new contracts which is due to begin in summer 2023.