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<p> </p><p> </p><p>Work in prisons is a key priority to ensure prisoners are engaged
purposefully whilst they are in custody. It also gives them the opportunity to learn
skills and a work ethic which can increase their chances of finding employment on
release, a key element to reducing reoffending.</p><p> </p><p>The number of prisoners
working in industrial activity in public sector prisons increased from around 8,600
in 2010-11 (the first year for which figures are available) to around 9,700 in 2012-13.
This delivered an increase in the total hours worked in industrial activities from
10.6 million hours to 13.1 million hours. Private sector prisons have also been supporting
this agenda and have reported that they delivered over 1½ million prisoner working
hours in commercial and industrial workshops in 2012-13 which provided work for over
1,200 prisoners.</p><p> </p><p>In addition there are substantial numbers of prisoners
who work to keep prisons running on tasks such as cooking, serving meals, maintenance
and cleaning.</p><p> </p><p>Figures for public sector prisons are published in the
NOMS Annual Report Management Information Addendum: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/225225/mi-addendum.pdf"
target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/225225/mi-addendum.pdf</a></p><p>
</p><p>Figures for the number of prisoners working in the community are not held centrally
and could only be obtained from local records at disproportionate cost.</p>
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