HC Deb 06 December 1999 vol 340 cc541-3
3. Jane Griffiths (Reading, East)

How much the Government are investing in programmes to provide constructive regimes for prisoners. [99678]

The Minister of State, Home Office (Mr. Paul Boateng)

The Government have a clear commitment to develop constructive regimes that reduce the risk of reoffending. The comprehensive spending review settlement included an additional £660 million for the Prison Service, a substantial part of which—£226 million—is for such regimes, including drugs, education and offending behaviour programmes.

Jane Griffiths

I thank my right hon. Friend for that welcome reply. He will be aware that Reading young offenders institution was recently commended by the inspectorate for its work in education and for having a midwife on site to assist young male inmates with parenting education. Will he join me in congratulating the YOI on that work?

Mr. Boateng

I certainly congratulate Reading YOI on its work, and I am grateful to my hon. Friend for the care and attention that she has given to it. The CSR allocated £200,000 to the budget in her area, and that will allow the introduction over the next year of expanded educational provision, an enhanced thinking skills course, counselling, advice, referral, assessment and throughcare support—or CARATS counselling—and a detox unit as part of a drugs strategy. The appointment of a voluntary drugs testing officer, increased time for probation bail information and capital funding for two safe cells to help to reduce suicides in custody will also make an appreciable difference to the safety of those held at Reading. Importantly, all that will also contribute to reducing the risk of reoffending. Protecting the public is what our policy is all about.

Miss Ann Widdecombe (Maidstone and The Weald)

Will the Minister acknowledge that, according to the most recent Prison Service annual report, purposeful activity has declined to less than 23 hours a week on average, the lowest level since 1991?

Mr. Boateng

I can assure the right hon. Lady that we have put in place a target for 1999–2000 of 24 hours a prisoner a week, and we are well on the way to achieving that goal. This Government, rather than her own, have put moneys into constructive activity in prisons. This Government, rather than hers, have placed a real emphasis on protecting the public. We shall be remembered for that, rather than for justifying chaining pregnant women to their beds.

Miss Widdecombe

The right hon. Gentleman says that he has a target of 24 hours a week, which may be some improvement on the current 22.8 hours a week. Will he acknowledge, however, that it does not begin to match the 26 hours a week that we achieved in 1994–95?

Mr. Boateng

Year in and year out, the provision made for prisoners held under the Conservative Government failed to address the basic levels of numeracy and literacy that determine whether prisoners get jobs when they are released. We inherited a situation in which the literacy and numeracy skills of 60 per cent. of prisoners disqualified them from more than 90 per cent. of all jobs. We intend to address that situation. The Conservatives had 18 years in which do so. They did not do it, but we will.

Miss Widdecombe

May I therefore deduce from the Minister's two answers that, yes, purposeful activity is indeed at its lowest level since 1991, and that, yes, the target is two hours lower than the one we achieved during our term in Government?

Mr. Boateng

rose—

Miss Widdecombe

I am glad of the Minister's eagerness, but would he answer one more question? If purposeful activity currently fills 22.8 hours a week, it follows that most prisoners spend an average of only four hours a day in purposeful activity. This is not a trick question, and I do not require an answer to the decimal point, but can the Minister tell me roughly what percentage of the convicted population manages more than six hours a day?

Mr. Boateng

If the right hon. Lady wants an accurate answer, she will understand that I shall write to her and give her an accurate answer—to the lowest percentage decimal point. However, in the meantime, she will understand, from my answers to her questions, that we are on the job that she palpably failed to address. Labour is delivering; she failed to do so. The public were put at risk; we are protecting the public.

Mr. Andrew Mackinlay (Thurrock)

Although I recognise the importance that my right hon. Friend puts on numeracy and literacy, will he undertake to review the fact that arrangements are currently not in place so that the relatively small number of long-term prisoners who have passed Open university degrees in prison can pursue postgraduate studies? They are unable to do so not through lack of facilities, but because of the lack of financial resources available to each governor. Will my right hon. Friend bear in mind that those prisoners who can show the way in such study will not only benefit themselves, but will offer an example of leadership to many other prisoners? Will he consider the matter as there is currently a deficiency?

Mr. Boateng

I would be only too happy to look at the matter and, indeed, to meet my hon. Friend if that would be of assistance.

Mr. John Bercow (Buckingham)

Given the revelation by the former Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, now the Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, the hon. Member for Knowsley, North and Sefton, East (Mr. Howarth), in a written answer in July 1999 to my right hon. Friend the Member for Maidstone and The Weald (Miss Widdecombe), that prisoners will have manufactured 260,000 pairs of slippers between March 1997 and March 2000, will the Minister tell the House what assessment he and his right hon. and hon. Friends have made of the job opportunities to which that collective manufacture has led, or will lead?

Mr. Boateng

Two hundred and sixty thousand pairs of slippers, but not one of them fitted the right hon. Member for Maidstone and The Weald (Miss Widdecombe).