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1729071

	registered interest
	date	11/09/2024
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Prisoners: Employment
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to enable prisoners with work outside the confines of prison to be paid a wage.
	tabling member printed	Lord Roberts of Llandudno
	uin	HL988
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/09/2024 answer text <p>We know that employment reduces the chance of reoffending significantly, by up to nine percentage points. That is why we have committed to break the cycle of reoffending by better supporting prisons to link up with employers and the voluntary sector to get more people with convictions into work.</p><p> </p><p>Release on Temporary Licence (ROTL) allows prisoners to be released temporarily into the community for specific purposes, including to engage in employment. Prisoners working on ROTL are paid the same as their counterparts in the community and are subject to the same income tax, National Insurance and child support requirements, as well as other court ordered deductions.</p><p> </p><p>In addition, the Prisoners’ Earnings Act 1996 (PEA) gives governors the power to deduct up to and including 40% from prisoners’ earnings on ROTL. Currently, the money deducted is given to the charity Victim Support. An average of £296 per prisoner per month was raised through the levy; totalling £4.2 million raised for the year ending March 2024.</p> answering member printed Lord Timpson question first answered 18/09/2024 10:41:17 answering member 5364 label Biography information for Lord Timpson
	tabling member	3691 label Biography information for Lord Roberts of Llandudno

1586729

	registered interest
	date	17/02/2023
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Prisoners: Employment
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) male and (b) female prisoners were engaged in prison work (i) to produce goods and services to be sold on the (A) open and (B) public sector internal market and (ii) to maintain or service the prison through (1) cleaning, (2) food preparation, (3) maintenance work and (4) other tasks and (iii) in none of the categories listed above in each of the last five years.
	tabling member constituency	Croydon North
	tabling member printed	Steve Reed
	uin	146987
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/02/2023 answer text <p>We are not able to provide the information in the formats requested, because some parts are not held centrally, and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. As data for work in custody were not collected during the period affected by the pandemic, the latest data published on numbers working in prisons is contained in the <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/991704/HMPPS-annual-digest-2019-20.pdf" target="_blank">HMPPS Annual Digest 2019/20 (publishing.service.gov.uk)</a>.</p><p> </p><p>We are committed to delivering purposeful activity within prisons. Governors have flexibility to deliver balanced regimes that maintain an appropriate level of time out of cell on a range of activities such as education and employment, with a strong focus on reducing re-offending. The <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/prisons-strategy-white-paper" target="_blank">Prisons Strategy White Paper - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)</a> sets out the Government’s commitment to prison regime reform.</p> answering member constituency East Hampshire answering member printed Damian Hinds question first answered 27/02/2023 13:46:44 answering member 3969 label Biography information for Damian Hinds
	tabling member	4268 label Biography information for Steve Reed

1200102

	registered interest
	date	03/06/2020
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Prisoners: Employment
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of prisoners undertaking paid employment in the community through Release on Temporary License in England and Wales have lost their employment since the restricted regime in prisons was introduced.
	tabling member constituency	West Ham
	tabling member printed	Ms Lyn Brown
	uin	54071
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/06/2020 answer text <p>Data on release on temporary licence (ROTL) is published quarterly and data covering March will be published in July, data covering April to June will be published in October.</p><p>Prisons have been facing a significant challenge to minimise the impact of COVID-19 and have been working closely with Public Health England (PHE). Without action, PHE expected the infection curve would occur faster in prisons than in the general population, putting staff and prisoners at risk and overwhelming local NHS services. As part of a range of measures to avoid this and also to reflect the current public health restrictions on non-essential travel, on 24 March Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) suspended ROTL, except for key workers, such as those in essential transport and delivery roles, or for compelling, compassionate reasons.</p><p>ROTL is a valuable resettlement tool but it also involves prisoners leaving and returning to prison from the community on a daily basis and so presents particular risks at this time. The need for the suspension is kept under review and fuller access to ROTL will be provided when and where it can be facilitated safely.</p> answering member constituency South East Cambridgeshire answering member printed Lucy Frazer question first answered 12/06/2020 13:28:16 answering member 4517 label Biography information for Lucy Frazer
	tabling member	1583 label Biography information for Ms Lyn Brown

1177961

	registered interest
	date	12/02/2020
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Prisoners: Employment
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners serving a custodial sentence work outside prison.
	tabling member constituency	Shipley
	tabling member printed	Philip Davies
	uin	1214
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/02/2020 answer text <p>Between October 2018 and September 2019, 3,858 separate individuals serving a custodial sentence had at least one incidence of ‘Work Related’ release on temporary licence.</p><p> </p><p>All offenders must meet strict criteria and pass a thorough risk assessment before being considered for release on temporary licence (ROTL). Research published in 2018 indicates that ROTL helps to reduce re-offending. It helps offenders to build and maintain family ties and find work, which are a critical aspect of reducing the £18 billion annual cost to the taxpayer of reoffending.</p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency South East Cambridgeshire answering member printed Lucy Frazer question first answered 25/02/2020 12:03:39 answering member 4517 label Biography information for Lucy Frazer
	tabling member	1565 label Biography information for Sir Philip Davies

1140307

	registered interest
	date	18/07/2019
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Prisoners: Employment
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many hours of purposeful activity per prisoner were recorded on average in (a) each prison rated in the 2017-18 performance rating as performance is of serious concern and (b) each prisons that was rated as exceptional performance.
	tabling member constituency	Leeds East
	tabling member printed	Richard Burgon
	uin	279097
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/07/2019 answer text <p>The Department does not currently collect data on the amount of time prisoners spend out of cell. We are examining the feasibility of developing such a measure and are exploring how this might be done, including working with Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons to understand the methodology it uses in its inspections.</p><p>Data are published on GOV.UK on the number of prisoners who have completed accredited programmes in custody, the number of hours worked in prison industries, and the number of prisoners released from prison on a temporary licence.</p><p>The introduction of Offender Management in Custody, and the associated staffing, mean that prisons will be better equipped to run fuller regimes with more opportunities for purposeful activity. Our Education and Employment strategy launched last year will create a system where prisoners are on a path to employment, through increased opportunities to gain experience of work in communities while released on temporary licence.</p> answering member constituency South Swindon answering member printed Robert Buckland question first answered 23/07/2019 11:37:02 answering member 4106 label Biography information for Sir Robert Buckland
	tabling member	4493 label Biography information for Richard Burgon

1131716

	registered interest
	date	12/06/2019
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Prisoners: Employment
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 3 December 2018 to Question 196156 on Prisoners: employment, for each of the figures given to provide the proportion of (a) men and (b) women.
	tabling member constituency	Stretford and Urmston
	tabling member printed	Kate Green
	uin	263857
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/06/2019 answer text <p>The figures used to answer question 196156 were taken from data collected on the pre-imprisonment status employment status of individuals within 72 hours of them entering custody using the Basic Custody Screening Tool (BCS) and covered the period 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018. The corresponding breakdown by gender can be found in the table below.</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>BCS Q B4.12: Were you working before you came to custody?</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Gender</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Count of Assessments</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Percentage</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Employed</p></td><td><p>Female</p></td><td><p>1010</p></td><td><p>0.99%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Employed</p></td><td><p>Male</p></td><td><p>21151</p></td><td><p>20.78%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Employed</p></td><td><p>Not disclosed</p></td><td><p>1</p></td><td><p>0.00%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Unemployed</p></td><td><p>Female</p></td><td><p>6513</p></td><td><p>6.40%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Unemployed</p></td><td><p>Male</p></td><td><p>55024</p></td><td><p>54.05%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Unemployed</p></td><td><p>Not disclosed</p></td><td><p>6</p></td><td><p>0.01%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Unavailable for work</p></td><td><p>Female</p></td><td><p>2265</p></td><td><p>2.22%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Unavailable for work</p></td><td><p>Male</p></td><td><p>8519</p></td><td><p>8.37%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Retired</p></td><td><p>Female</p></td><td><p>69</p></td><td><p>0.07%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Retired</p></td><td><p>Male</p></td><td><p>1097</p></td><td><p>1.08%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Retired</p></td><td><p>Not disclosed</p></td><td><p>1</p></td><td><p>0.00%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Self-employed</p></td><td><p>Female</p></td><td><p>106</p></td><td><p>0.10%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Self-employed</p></td><td><p>Male</p></td><td><p>6045</p></td><td><p>5.94%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Self-employed</p></td><td><p>Not disclosed</p></td><td><p>1</p></td><td><p>0.00%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p> </p></td><td><p>Count:</p></td><td><p>101808</p></td><td><p>100.00%</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>Note: Slight discrepancies in the figures from those published in response to question 196156 are likely to be due to the deletion of offender records and/or BCS responses from the OASys application since those figures were published.</p><p>As was stated in the earlier answer, these figures are compiled from information the prisoners have provided the assessor to enter into the BCS and include not only prisoners sentenced in respect of a criminal offence, but also those received into custody on remand. Given the information is provided by the prisoners themselves and is not assessed, there will always be a margin of error in the figures. A proportion of prisoners will enter custody multiple times each year and may provide different answers to these questions over time.</p><p> </p><p>Prisons must be places of rehabilitation, which will ultimately reduce reoffending. Our Education and Employment strategy sets out how we will transform our approach to ensure prisoners develop the skills they need to secure employment on release. We have overhauled the prison education system and we implemented our new prison education contracts. Governors control their budget, including the power to choose providers and deliver learning that will best support their prisoners. We are engaging with employers to take on ex-prisoners via the New Futures Network (NFN) and have consulted on proposals to increase the opportunities available to prisoners to gain experience in real workplaces through ROTL.</p> answering member constituency South Swindon answering member printed Robert Buckland question first answered 24/06/2019 15:55:10 answering member 4106 label Biography information for Sir Robert Buckland
	tabling member	4120 label Biography information for Kate Green

1015433

	registered interest
	date	27/11/2018
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Prisoners: Employment
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent estimate he has made of the proportion of offenders who are in paid work at the time of being sent to prison.
	tabling member constituency	Shipley
	tabling member printed	Philip Davies
	uin	196156
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/12/2018 answer text <p>We collect data on the pre-imprisonment status employment status of individuals within 72 hours of them entering custody using the Basic Custody Screening Tool (BCS). For the period 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018, these figures are set out in the table below:</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>BCS Q B4.12: Were you working before you came to custody?</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Count of Assessments</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Percentage</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Employed</p></td><td><p>22177</p></td><td><p>21.77%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Unemployed</p></td><td><p>61586</p></td><td><p>60.44%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Unavailable for work</p></td><td><p>10797</p></td><td><p>10.60%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Retired</p></td><td><p>1168</p></td><td><p>1.15%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Self-employed</p></td><td><p>6161</p></td><td><p>6.05%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Count:</p></td><td><p>101889</p></td><td><p>100.00%</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>It should be noted that these figures are compiled from information the prisoners have provided the assessor to enter into the BCS, and include not only prisoners sentenced in respect of a criminal offence, but also those received into custody on remand. Given the information is provided by the prisoners themselves and is not assessed, there will always be a margin of error in the figures. A proportion of prisoners will enter custody multiple times each year and may provide different answers to these questions over time.</p><p> </p><p>Reoffending is costing society approximately £15 billion a year. Effective rehabilitation needs prisoners to be willing to commit to change, take advice, learn new skills and take opportunities to work. For those individuals willing to engage, the prison system must deliver. That is why we launched the Education and Employment strategy to create a system where each prisoner is set on a path to employment from the outset. We are empowering governors to commission education provision that leads to work, we are engaging with employers to take on ex-prisoners via the New Futures Network (NFN) and have consulted on proposals to increase the opportunities available to prisoners to gain experience in real workplaces through ROTL.</p> answering member constituency Penrith and The Border answering member printed Rory Stewart question first answered 03/12/2018 16:42:17 answering member 4137 label Biography information for Rory Stewart
	tabling member	1565 label Biography information for Sir Philip Davies

805349

	registered interest
	date	12/12/2017
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Prisoners: Employment
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many hours of purposeful engagement in activity is required of a prisoner and what the average number of sessions of purposeful activity undertaken by a prisoner has been in each prison in the last 12 months.
	tabling member constituency	Leeds East
	tabling member printed	Richard Burgon
	uin	119021
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/12/2017 answer text <p>We want prison to be places of hard work and discipline and we are empowering governors to equip prisoners with the skills that they know they need. We do not stipulate a minimum number of hours of purposeful activity that each prisoner should undertake. The type of activity available is guided by the function and the facilities of each prison. This can include workshops; wing based work (such as cleaning and servery work); offending behaviour programmes and education. There is no single measure of the number of sessions required and attendance could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.</p> answering member constituency East Surrey answering member printed Mr Sam Gyimah question first answered 20/12/2017 11:47:47 answering member 3980 label Biography information for Mr Sam Gyimah
	tabling member	4493 label Biography information for Richard Burgon

777875

	registered interest
	date	25/10/2017
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Prisoners: Employment
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average number of hours was that prisoners spent on purposeful activity in each day in (a) England and Wales and (b) each prison in England and Wales in the latest period for which figures are available.
	tabling member constituency	Leeds East
	tabling member printed	Richard Burgon
	uin	109756
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 30/10/2017 answer text <p>We do not currently collate information centrally for the average number of hours prisoners spend on daily purposeful activity and it could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.</p><p> </p><p>We want prisons to be places of hard work and high ambition, with incentives for prisoners to learn.</p><p> </p><p>We have empowered Governors so they have more freedom to innovate and make the best decisions for their prisons. By next year, every governor will be able to tailor education and training to the needs of their prisoners, providing offenders the right support and challenge to help turn their backs on crime.</p> answering member constituency East Surrey answering member printed Mr Sam Gyimah question first answered 30/10/2017 17:19:05 answering member 3980 label Biography information for Mr Sam Gyimah
	tabling member	4493 label Biography information for Richard Burgon

525023

	registered interest
	date	14/06/2016
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Prisoners: Employment
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to improve the provision of meaningful employment to prisoners in all categories of prison.
	tabling member constituency	Redditch
	tabling member printed	Karen Lumley
	uin	40526
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/06/2016 answer text <p>All prisons provide opportunities for prisoners to work and learn new skills to help support their rehabilitation. We work continuously with employers and prisons to create new opportunities for work experience and employment, and our programme of reform will build on this, so that prisons can help offenders get the skills and qualifications they need to make a success of life on the outside.</p> answering member constituency South West Bedfordshire answering member printed Andrew Selous question first answered 27/06/2016 09:05:25 answering member 1453 label Biography information for Andrew Selous
	tabling member	4023 label Biography information for Karen Lumley