Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to support prison leavers to find work.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
To improve the number of prison leavers who find work, we are putting additional emphasis on initiatives which offer offenders the chance to work in prison, on Release on Temporary Licence and on release and build stronger links with employers.
In last year’s Prisons Strategy White Paper, we announced a range of measures to improve outcomes for prison leavers.
Alongside our new Employment Advisory Boards that build links between prisons and industry, we also need to ensure that prisons are performing and developing these links. So, we are establishing ‘Employment Hubs’ which are the equivalent of a ‘job centre in a prison’. Prisoners can find out about opportunities sourced by New Futures Network and other partners, as well as access support with applications. There are 23 in operation currently.
We have also been trialling a new role - a dedicated employment advisor to improve employment outcomes by offering case-level support and matching candidates to roles, in ten prisons.
All of these measures will be rolled out across the prison estate.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the report entitled Unlocking Potential, A review of education in prison, published in May 2016, what progress has been made in implementing the recommendations contained in that review.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Following Dame Sally Coates’ 2016 review, the budget for prison education was moved from the Department for Education (DfE) to the Ministry of Justice. This was in response to the core recommendation to give prison governors more flexibility and control over the curriculum so that they could better meet the learning needs of their prisoners. To address further recommendations, we introduced assessment on entry for English, maths and learning difficulties and disabilities, and boosted the capability of prisons to engage with employers through the creation of the New Futures Network (NFN). We expect to further improve the infrastructure for learning through the Government’s commitment to invest £200 million a year by 2024-25 to tackle reoffending and meet the manifesto commitment of delivering a new Prisoner Education Service. We have already started to trial innovation such as specialist education roles, as well as invest in digital tools to support prisoners with additional learning needs, such as trialling the use of reader pens.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to Offenders to pay back society more visibly under £90 million plan, published on 5 October 2021, what organisations working with former offenders he has recently consulted on the impact of different forms of unpaid work on (a) rehabilitation and (b) skills and employability.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
This Government is investing £93m so that communities can benefit from a record-breaking 8 million hours of impactful and demanding unpaid work each year.
As part of our efforts to relaunch unpaid work, we are pursuing a range of measures that will build the skills needed for employment. New national partnerships with charities and organisations mean that offenders can make reparations for their crimes, whilst gaining vital opportunities to improve their skills and employability. We have regular engagement with the voluntary sector, such as our new partnership with the Canal and River Trust, and more broadly with industry leaders through our New Futures Network, including employers such as Timpson and G4S.We are consulting a range of further potential voluntary sector partners to identify unpaid work placements that will develop work ready skills and offer vocational training.
We are engaging with education providers including large colleges, and those within the voluntary and community sectors, to create a national strategy that will see offenders gain access to apprenticeships, create positions of responsibility for hard working offenders to gain skills in group supervision, and provide training opportunities, interview preparation and CV building. We are also looking to recruit offenders locally to act as mentors and support staff. Some may be directly recruited from unpaid work groups, if they have demonstrated a willingness to develop themselves, gain new skills and provide support to their peers.
This work builds on our engagement with leading employment and education specialists as part of reforms to probation this year. Charities and private sector organisations were awarded £195m to provide vital services that help reduce reoffending, including £34m for skills training and employment support.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the paper entitled Effectiveness of psychological interventions in prison to reduce recidivism: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials, published by Lancet Psychiatry in September 2021, what progress has been made with Her Majesty's Prison and Probation Service impact evaluations of accredited offender behaviour programmes.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) keeps abreast of any research and reviews relevant to our rehabilitative work and will consider the Lancet Psychiatry paper as we would with any published study. Programmes that follow Risk, Need and Responsivity (RNR) and Cognitive-Behavioural Treatment (CBT) principles have been shown to be linked to a reduction in reoffending. There is considerable research highlighting the importance of RNR in promoting effective interventions, and evidence to support the use of CBT programmes that include the teaching of skills to reduce offending.
Therapeutic communities (TC) are part of the Offender Personality Disorder (OPD) pathway, a joint venture with NHS England and Improvement. There are currently no plans to increase the number of prisons that operate TCs. The evidence and principles behind TC are at the heart of the OPD pathway which operates across prisons and probation. The Pathway continues to look for opportunities to invest in provision within available resources.
In July, this Government published the Beating Crime Plan which announced plans to tackle some of these key drivers of reoffending. This includes launching a £20m scheme across five probation regions to provide temporary accommodation for prison leavers at risk of homelessness. As set out in the Beating Crime Plan, we are also encouraging prison leavers to turn their backs on crime by securing employment. The Prison Service’s New Futures Network continues to broker partnerships between prisons and employers to improve employment opportunities for prisoners and prison leavers and we are increasing the number of DWP Prison Work Coaches across the estate, which means that prior to release, prisoners can access advice and support on employment and benefits. The Civil Service is also leading by example with the goal of recruiting 1,000 prison leavers by the end of 2023.
This is all part of wider investment this Government announced earlier this year: £70 million package to tackle some of these key drivers of repeat offending and £80 million on expanding drug treatment services in England to address offenders’ substance misuse issues, divert them on to effective community sentences and reduce drug-related crime and deaths. This £80 million will bolster the continuity of care for substance misuse treatment for prison leavers and we will continue to work closely with NHS England on rolling out RECONNECT services for those leaving prison to ensure that they engage with community health services.
We are committed to evaluating the current suite of accredited offender behaviour programmes and have a number of evaluations underway or being scoped. Where there is a sufficient number of people who have completed the programme and the necessary data is available to construct a meaningful comparison group, to help attribute any change to the intervention, the aim is to conduct good quality offending and reoffending impact studies to assess whether the programme is effective. We will be keeping the future direction of travel on accredited programmes under review using the best evidence.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the paper entitled Effectiveness of psychological interventions in prison to reduce recidivism: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials, published by Lancet Psychiatry in September 2021, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of that paper's conclusion that (a) continuation of care upon release and (b) addressing the (i) accommodation, (ii) employment and (iii) financial difficulties after release that contribute to recidivism risk, may be important in ensuring that offending behaviour programmes have a rehabilitative effect.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) keeps abreast of any research and reviews relevant to our rehabilitative work and will consider the Lancet Psychiatry paper as we would with any published study. Programmes that follow Risk, Need and Responsivity (RNR) and Cognitive-Behavioural Treatment (CBT) principles have been shown to be linked to a reduction in reoffending. There is considerable research highlighting the importance of RNR in promoting effective interventions, and evidence to support the use of CBT programmes that include the teaching of skills to reduce offending.
Therapeutic communities (TC) are part of the Offender Personality Disorder (OPD) pathway, a joint venture with NHS England and Improvement. There are currently no plans to increase the number of prisons that operate TCs. The evidence and principles behind TC are at the heart of the OPD pathway which operates across prisons and probation. The Pathway continues to look for opportunities to invest in provision within available resources.
In July, this Government published the Beating Crime Plan which announced plans to tackle some of these key drivers of reoffending. This includes launching a £20m scheme across five probation regions to provide temporary accommodation for prison leavers at risk of homelessness. As set out in the Beating Crime Plan, we are also encouraging prison leavers to turn their backs on crime by securing employment. The Prison Service’s New Futures Network continues to broker partnerships between prisons and employers to improve employment opportunities for prisoners and prison leavers and we are increasing the number of DWP Prison Work Coaches across the estate, which means that prior to release, prisoners can access advice and support on employment and benefits. The Civil Service is also leading by example with the goal of recruiting 1,000 prison leavers by the end of 2023.
This is all part of wider investment this Government announced earlier this year: £70 million package to tackle some of these key drivers of repeat offending and £80 million on expanding drug treatment services in England to address offenders’ substance misuse issues, divert them on to effective community sentences and reduce drug-related crime and deaths. This £80 million will bolster the continuity of care for substance misuse treatment for prison leavers and we will continue to work closely with NHS England on rolling out RECONNECT services for those leaving prison to ensure that they engage with community health services.
We are committed to evaluating the current suite of accredited offender behaviour programmes and have a number of evaluations underway or being scoped. Where there is a sufficient number of people who have completed the programme and the necessary data is available to construct a meaningful comparison group, to help attribute any change to the intervention, the aim is to conduct good quality offending and reoffending impact studies to assess whether the programme is effective. We will be keeping the future direction of travel on accredited programmes under review using the best evidence.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the paper entitled Effectiveness of psychological interventions in prison to reduce recidivism: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials, published by Lancet Psychiatry in September 2021, what steps he is taking to increase the (a) number and (b) proportion of prisons in England and Wales that include therapeutic communities.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) keeps abreast of any research and reviews relevant to our rehabilitative work and will consider the Lancet Psychiatry paper as we would with any published study. Programmes that follow Risk, Need and Responsivity (RNR) and Cognitive-Behavioural Treatment (CBT) principles have been shown to be linked to a reduction in reoffending. There is considerable research highlighting the importance of RNR in promoting effective interventions, and evidence to support the use of CBT programmes that include the teaching of skills to reduce offending.
Therapeutic communities (TC) are part of the Offender Personality Disorder (OPD) pathway, a joint venture with NHS England and Improvement. There are currently no plans to increase the number of prisons that operate TCs. The evidence and principles behind TC are at the heart of the OPD pathway which operates across prisons and probation. The Pathway continues to look for opportunities to invest in provision within available resources.
In July, this Government published the Beating Crime Plan which announced plans to tackle some of these key drivers of reoffending. This includes launching a £20m scheme across five probation regions to provide temporary accommodation for prison leavers at risk of homelessness. As set out in the Beating Crime Plan, we are also encouraging prison leavers to turn their backs on crime by securing employment. The Prison Service’s New Futures Network continues to broker partnerships between prisons and employers to improve employment opportunities for prisoners and prison leavers and we are increasing the number of DWP Prison Work Coaches across the estate, which means that prior to release, prisoners can access advice and support on employment and benefits. The Civil Service is also leading by example with the goal of recruiting 1,000 prison leavers by the end of 2023.
This is all part of wider investment this Government announced earlier this year: £70 million package to tackle some of these key drivers of repeat offending and £80 million on expanding drug treatment services in England to address offenders’ substance misuse issues, divert them on to effective community sentences and reduce drug-related crime and deaths. This £80 million will bolster the continuity of care for substance misuse treatment for prison leavers and we will continue to work closely with NHS England on rolling out RECONNECT services for those leaving prison to ensure that they engage with community health services.
We are committed to evaluating the current suite of accredited offender behaviour programmes and have a number of evaluations underway or being scoped. Where there is a sufficient number of people who have completed the programme and the necessary data is available to construct a meaningful comparison group, to help attribute any change to the intervention, the aim is to conduct good quality offending and reoffending impact studies to assess whether the programme is effective. We will be keeping the future direction of travel on accredited programmes under review using the best evidence.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the paper entitled Effectiveness of psychological interventions in prison to reduce recidivism: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials, published by Lancet Psychiatry in September 2021, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of (a) commissioning of offending behaviour programmes, (b) use of completion of offending behaviour programmes as evidence of reduced risk, (c) use of completion of offending behaviour programmes as evidence of sentence progression and (d) other findings of that paper.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) keeps abreast of any research and reviews relevant to our rehabilitative work and will consider the Lancet Psychiatry paper as we would with any published study. Programmes that follow Risk, Need and Responsivity (RNR) and Cognitive-Behavioural Treatment (CBT) principles have been shown to be linked to a reduction in reoffending. There is considerable research highlighting the importance of RNR in promoting effective interventions, and evidence to support the use of CBT programmes that include the teaching of skills to reduce offending.
Therapeutic communities (TC) are part of the Offender Personality Disorder (OPD) pathway, a joint venture with NHS England and Improvement. There are currently no plans to increase the number of prisons that operate TCs. The evidence and principles behind TC are at the heart of the OPD pathway which operates across prisons and probation. The Pathway continues to look for opportunities to invest in provision within available resources.
In July, this Government published the Beating Crime Plan which announced plans to tackle some of these key drivers of reoffending. This includes launching a £20m scheme across five probation regions to provide temporary accommodation for prison leavers at risk of homelessness. As set out in the Beating Crime Plan, we are also encouraging prison leavers to turn their backs on crime by securing employment. The Prison Service’s New Futures Network continues to broker partnerships between prisons and employers to improve employment opportunities for prisoners and prison leavers and we are increasing the number of DWP Prison Work Coaches across the estate, which means that prior to release, prisoners can access advice and support on employment and benefits. The Civil Service is also leading by example with the goal of recruiting 1,000 prison leavers by the end of 2023.
This is all part of wider investment this Government announced earlier this year: £70 million package to tackle some of these key drivers of repeat offending and £80 million on expanding drug treatment services in England to address offenders’ substance misuse issues, divert them on to effective community sentences and reduce drug-related crime and deaths. This £80 million will bolster the continuity of care for substance misuse treatment for prison leavers and we will continue to work closely with NHS England on rolling out RECONNECT services for those leaving prison to ensure that they engage with community health services.
We are committed to evaluating the current suite of accredited offender behaviour programmes and have a number of evaluations underway or being scoped. Where there is a sufficient number of people who have completed the programme and the necessary data is available to construct a meaningful comparison group, to help attribute any change to the intervention, the aim is to conduct good quality offending and reoffending impact studies to assess whether the programme is effective. We will be keeping the future direction of travel on accredited programmes under review using the best evidence.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Annual Report of the Independent Monitoring Board at HMP Onley, published on 20 July 2021, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of capacity in Category D prisons in London and the South-East; and what assessment he has made of the effect on the (a) rehabilitation and (b) resettlement of prisoners in custody a large distance away from their families.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
In recent months we have taken a number of units out of use that no longer meet current fire safety standards. This has inevitably had an impact on the availability of category D (open) places in London and the South-East. In the short term, these reductions in places are being offset by installation of good-quality temporary units at a number of critical sites, while we plan for their replacement on a permanent basis.
We have committed more than £4 billion to make significant progress in delivering 18,000 additional prison places across England and Wales by the mid-2020s, and expansion of the category D estate is included in this. We are currently assessing which sites may be suitable for expansion.
Open prisons are classified as a national resource, meaning that some prisoners are held in open conditions outside of their immediate home region. However, open prisons have a successful track record of supporting prisoners realise their release plans despite the geographical distance from home that can affect some prisoners. All open prisons have established links with local employers to provide access to job opportunities while in custody through Release on Temporary Licence. Through collaboration with New Futures Network, there is also a national network of organisations that facilitate employment in custody and after release. In all cases, open prisons work to ensure that, where possible, the job can be retained on release. Alternatively, they may be released with transferrable skills that are to a recognised industry standard that would enable them to be employed in their home area.
We recognise that closeness to home is important for maintaining family ties, however given restraints in existing geography and infrastructure, we are not always able to hold prisoners close to home while having access to the right services or opportunities. The Model for Operational Delivery for Resettlement prisons covers resettlement for both Category C and Category D prisoners to ensure there is equality in service delivery regardless of where they are located within the estate. Onley is a training and resettlement prison and like other closed prisons is able to provide prisoners with a range of opportunities for rehabilitation and resettlement while they are waiting for an open prison place to become available.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will commit to developing a rehabilitation strategy for male prisoners that is in line with the Female Offender Strategy.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
Evidence shows that a gender-specific approach for women is the most effective way to address the often multiple and complex issues that underly women’s offending behaviour. That is why we launched the Female Offender Strategy in 2018 to improve outcomes for women at all points of the justice system by taking a gender and trauma informed approach.
A wide range of work is underway to help rehabilitate both male and female offenders. We know that having somewhere to live, a job, a healthy lifestyle and helping the individual address their underlying and often complex needs are essential to reducing their likelihood of reoffending. This enables them to make a positive contribution to society.
That is why we are strengthening rehabilitation in prisons by creating a Prisoner Education Service focussed on work-based training and skills to improve employment outcomes for offenders on release. The HMPPS New Futures Network also continues to broker partnerships between prisons and employers, which can result in work opportunities for serving prisoners, through prison industries workshops and workplace Release on Temporary Licence. We are also improving employment outcomes by increasing the number of DWP Prison Work Coaches across the estate, which means that prior to release, prisoners can access advice and support on employment and benefits.
In January, this Government announced a £70 million package on tackling some of the key drivers of reoffending, and £80 million on expanding drug treatment services in England to address offenders’ substance misuse issues, divert them on to effective community sentences and reduce drug-related crime and deaths. The £70 million package includes launching transitional accommodation for those leaving prison who would otherwise be homeless in five probation regions and working collaboratively with 16 prisons to test new innovative approaches to ensure offenders resettle back into the community and turn their backs on crime.
On the 26 June we successfully implemented our reforms to create a unified Probation Service. We have retained a key role for the private and voluntary sectors by awarding contracts worth nearly £200m over the next 3 years to a range of organisations to deliver vital rehabilitative services such as accommodation support, education, training and employment, and support to address other issues such as access to mental health services and additional support to meet the specific needs of female offenders.
We are committed to providing all offenders with an opportunity to turn their backs on crime. However, this is not something the Ministry of Justice can do in isolation, it needs to be a combined effort across government and local partners in order to make a significant and lasting change. That is why we are leading work across Government to address the complex issues that increase the likelihood of reoffending when a prisoner is released. There are no plans to develop a distinct rehabilitation strategy for male prisoners.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
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.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
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.