Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

Prisoner Rehabilitation: Education and Training

Tuesday 3 February 2026 · 2 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 0 Partly answered 2 Not answered 0

Key points

  • Lauren Edwards thanked the Minister for efforts to improve prison literacy but noted a 25% reduction in core prison education provision under new contracts.
  • Sir Ashley Fox questioned why the Government would spend more money on prison education while commissioning 25% less education in terms of service quantity.
  • The Minister acknowledged issues with contracts inherited from the previous Conservative Government and emphasized efforts to improve the quality of educational provision.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 Lauren Edwards Lab Rochester and Strood
Justice & Courts
Context

The Government has confirmed a reduction of core prison education provision by a quarter nationally under retendered contracts, raising concerns about the impact on prisoner rehabilitation. Stable work is one of the top factors in preventing male prisoners from reoffending.

Question

I thank the Minister for the work he is doing in prisons to improve literacy, but last week the Government confirmed to the Justice Committee that core prison education provision has been cut by a quarter nationally under retendered contracts. The independent monitoring board recently raised concerns about the impact that this will have on prisoner rehabilitation in Rochester prison in my constituency. Stable work is one of the top factors in preventing male prisoners from reoffending, so education and training are key to reducing our prison population in the long term. How will the Minister ensure that this remains a priority?

Answer from The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Jake Richards)

It was fantastic to visit my hon. Friend’s constituency with her just last week to visit a facility in the youth custody service, and I look forward to visiting Rochester prison with her in the future. She is right to raise this issue. There are real fiscal pressures when the two twin strategic objectives for this Department are dealing with a prison capacity crisis inherited from the previous Government and pressures in our courts, but that does not mean we will overlook the importance of educational work in the prison system. We are looking at working with the third sector and the private sector to ensure adequate provision while maintaining our two strategic aims of stabilising the prison system and solving the backlog.

Partly answered

Not addressed: The Minister acknowledged the issue but did not provide specific details on how education and training will remain a priority despite cuts.

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Q2 Ashley Fox Con Bridgwater
Justice & Courts Education
Context

Despite an increase in government spending on education in prisons, the quantity of service has been commissioned to be 25% less next year under retendered contracts.

Question

Next year, the Government will spend more money on education in prisons, yet they will actually commission 25% less education by way of quantity of service. Why are they doing such a poor job of commissioning education on behalf of the taxpayer?

Answer from The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Jake Richards)

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman, who asked this question last week as well. We are raising the quality of the provision of education, but he is right to identify some issues with the contracts that the last Conservative Government entered into, which we are having to look at and deal with. As I said to him last week, it is important that we look at alternatives to those contracts. As I have just said, that includes working with the third sector and looking at how we can get more private sector provision. It also includes, as he said last week, working with governors individually to ensure they have more autonomy and power to bring in educational facilities from local colleges and universities where it is possible and safe.

Partly answered

Not addressed: The Minister acknowledged issues but did not provide a direct reason for the discrepancy between increased spending and reduced education provision.

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